Nicole Torres, a spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Management for the city of Annapolis, Md., ties a sandbag on Friday, Sept. 22, 2022 as residents prepared for an approaching storm. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)
By Sarah Brumfield and Brian Witte
Tropical Storm Ophelia formed off the mid-Atlantic coast and was expected to bring heavy rain, storm surge and windy conditions over the weekend, the National Hurricane Center said Friday.
Ophelia had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph), according to a 2 p.m. advisory from the Miami-based center. The storm was centered 150 miles (240 kilometers) southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, and was forecast to make landfall Saturday morning.
Virginia’s governor declared a state of emergency Friday and the intensifying weather system forced schools to close early and canceled weekend events.
Rain was already moving inland across North Carolina by midday Friday with some areas expected to get up to 7 inches (17.7 centimeters) across eastern parts of the state and into southeast Virginia, forecasters said. Storm surge warning was in effect for some areas, with surges between 3 and 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters) forecast for parts of North Carolina, the hurricane center reported.
The system’s center is expected to move inland over eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia and near the Chesapeake Bay through Sunday, Mike Brennan, the hurricane center’s director, said in a livestreamed briefing on Friday.
A storm surge warning was in effect from Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina, to Chincoteague, Virginia, and a tropical storm warning was issued from Cape Fear, North Carolina to Fenwick Island, Delaware.
Nancy Shoemaker and her husband Bob stopped by a waterside park in downtown Annapolis, Maryland's capital, to pick up sandbags to help protect their waterfront home.
Last year, at the end of October, they experienced a big surge of water that came into their yard and even washed some sandbags away.
“We’re hoping it won’t be that way this time,” Nancy Shoemaker said. “If we have a lot of wind and a lot of surge, it can look like the ocean out there, so that’s a problem.”
The weather was already affecting water taxis in Annapolis, where water taxi driver Scott Bierman said service would shut down at 6 p.m., and the decision had already been made to close Saturday.
“We don’t operate when it’s going to endanger passengers and or damage vessels,” Bierman said.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency Friday afternoon, issuing an executive order intended to ease response and recovery efforts.
“As this storm has organized and strengthened, it’s becoming clear based on the latest forecasts that impacts to the commonwealth are likely,” Youngkin said in a statement. “We want to ensure that all communities, particularly those with the greatest anticipated impact, have the resources they need to respond and recover from the effects of this storm.”
The governor encouraged residents to prepare an emergency kit and follow the weather forecast closely.
Schools in coastal areas of North Carolina and Virginia announced plans to dismiss students early Friday and cancel afterschool and weekend activities.
The North Carolina Ferry System announced it was suspending several routes and the State Emergency Response Team planned to move to an enhanced watch Friday to ease coordination of resources, the governor’s office said.
The forecast prompted the cancellation of events across the region, including the Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival, which had been set to return to City Dock in Annapolis on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Nigel was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone centered about 640 miles (1,030 kilometers) northwest of the Azores with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph). There were no associated coastal watches or warnings as the storm moved northeast at 37 mph (59 kph), the hurricane center said in its final update on the system Friday morning.
After two decades of engineering, over $10 billion, and a series of delays, the most powerful telescope built by NASA is finally scheduled to launch on Saturday. The James Webb Space Telescope was built to provide a fresh look at the universe by detecting light that is invisible to the human eye and to reveal new information about the universe's oldest stars and galaxies. Lou Strolger, observatory scientist and deputy head of instruments division, space telescope, joins Cheddar News.
Carlo and Baker kick off the weirdest week of the year with all the news you missed over the holiday weekend, including calls for the CDC to shorten its isolation window as Omicron sweeps through the country.
The 2022 Winter Olympics will be without some of hockey's biggest players. The NHL and the NHL Player's Association have agreed to not participate in the men's hockey tournament at the Games in Beijing next year. The league has been forced to postpone some games because of a rise in COVID-19 cases among players. Washington Post sports reporter Samantha Pell joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what this could mean for the Winter Olympics and the sport of hockey.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a formal investigation into Tesla. The agency is looking into about 580,000 Tesla vehicles, and a feature called 'Passenger Play' which allows drivers to play video games on the center touch screen. The feature previously only worked when a vehicle was in park; but, the NHTSA says it has confirmed that the feature has been available while vehicles are in motion since December of 2020. iSeeCars.com executive analyst Karl Brauer joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Baron Davis and Kate Hudson want you to bring cannabis home for the holidays. The cannabis-infused seltzer brand Cann released a new spot featuring the actress and former NBA player. The campaign comes hand in hand with Cann's launch of a new holiday bundle, which includes its product with Hudson's King Street Vodka. Davis and Hudson are also Cann investors. Cheddar cannabis reporter Chloe Aiello spoke to Davis about his involvement with the company and its new campaign.
Healthcare workforce management platform ShiftMed
recently announced a $45 million funding round.
The company's platform connects nurses and healthcare professionals to hospitals and other healthcare providers.
ShiftMed's new funding comes amid widespread labor shortages in the healthcare sector. The company's CEO Todd Walrath joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Universities like UCLA, Yale, and Duke have announced they're implementing remote learning amid the COVID omicron variant surge, despite President Biden recommending that K-12 schools should continue in-person education. Jared C. Bass, senior director for Higher Education at American Progress, joined Cheddar to break down what institutions of higher education might be considering differently. "I think some universities are allowing periods of a bit of a respite to allow students to get testing and make sure when they do return back to campus that they're healthy," he noted.
Supply chain issues have become one of the biggest roadblocks for the U.S. EV market, with production woes likely to stunt the industry's growth in 2022. Rich Steinberg, electric vehicle expert and industry advisor, told Cheddar that the Biden administration investing in domestic mining for essential minerals used in battery manufacturing — such as lithium — could help alleviate the bottlenecks. "Some of those same materials are available domestically, they just haven't been prioritized," he said, noting the paradox between green tech and "dirty" mining. "The good news is that there are ways to extract those materials cleanly."
Hyperfine, the pioneer of the very first FDA-approved portable MRI device, made its public debut on the Nasdaq via a SPAC merger. CEO Dave Scott joined Cheddar's "Opening Bell" to discuss the IPO launch, the company's valuation at $580 million, and the impact of its machine called Swoop. "We can roll an MRI system, our MRI Swoop system, right into the room where you are, right up to your patient bedside, and scan you right there and get an image in less than an hour," he explained.
Dr. Rob Davidson, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Health Care and an ER Physician in West Michigan, joins Cheddar News to break down the expectations of Pfizer's new COVID-19 treatment pill.
