Covington Drive wildfire flare-ups still producing smoke in area
'Smoldering fire mixed with wind and dry conditions are commonly producing hot spots within the fire lines and breaks,' Horry County Fire Rescue said Wednesday morning in a Facebook post.
According to the South Carolina Forestry Commission, the 2,059-acre fire, which began on March 1, remains 90% contained.
Despite the flare-ups, Horry County Fire Rescue said Wednesday morning that 'all structures remain well protected and that smoke, especially in the early morning, is likely to continue until the area receives a significant amount of rainfall.
Horry County Fire Rescue and Forestry Commission crews are continuing work on the flare-ups to maintain containment.
* * *
Dennis Bright is the Digital Executive Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New York Post
11 hours ago
- New York Post
Three people struck by lightning at popular Fla. beach getaway
Advertisement Three people were injured after being struck by lightning in a popular summer beach getaway town on Saturday night. Two of the victims of the strike on St. Augustine Pier in Florida were transported to the hospital, one in critical condition and one with minor injuries, according to WJXT. A third person refused to be taken to the hospital. The pier was closed down while fire crews attended to the injured, and it was inspected for damage. It is expected to reopen on Monday. Advertisement 'Please avoid the pier while emergency operations are underway — and remember, when thunder roars, go indoors,' St. John's County Fire Rescue said in a Facebook post. 'Stay safe and weather aware.' St. Augustine Beach Mayor Dylan Rumrell echoed that sentiment, warning residents to seek shelter if they hear thunder. 'There's a big storm and lightning can hit at any time,' he reportedly said. 3 Three people on the beach were injured after being struck by lightning. Solid photos – Advertisement According to the report, the lightning strike left beachgoers, swimmers and surfers in a panic, and many ran for their cars in the immediate aftermath. 'I got scared, everybody was scared,' said one witness. According to the National Weather Service, there have been six lightning strike fatalities in the United Sates in 2025, all in different states. North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, Florida and Oklahoma have all seen fatal strikes. 3 According to WJXT, two of the victims of the strike on St. Augustine Pier in Florida were transported to the hospital, one in critical condition and one with minor injuries. Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Advertisement 3 The pier was closed while fire crews attended to the injured. Universal Images Group via Getty Images The 10-year average annual fatality rate from lightning strikes is 20 people per year. To reduce the risk of being struck by lightning, the National Weather Service instructs people to immediately move away from high ground, including hills, mountain ridges or peaks. The organization says never to lie down to avoid lightning, never to hide under an isolated tree, never use a cliff or rocky overhang for shelter and to immediately move away from bodies of water and anything that conducts electricity.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Ohio Task Force 1 heading to Texas for search and rescue operation following devastating floods
VANDALIA, Ohio (WJW) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency has activated Ohio Task Force 1 to assist with search-and-rescue operations following catastrophic flash flooding in Texas. Three task force members — a search team manager and two canine search specialists, along with two search dogs — departed from the task force warehouse in Vandalia Friday evening, according to a social media post from the task force. Teen buried alive in beach sand collapse in Italy: reports Ohio Task Force 1 is one of 28 teams part of FEMA's urban search-and-rescue network, according to the task force's Facebook page. Their activation orders came just after noon on Friday, according to the post. Three hours later, the team members were en route. They include: Search Team Manager David Kelley and Canine Search Specialists Melissa Morgan with canine Anni and Rayanne Chamberlain with canine Journey. University Hospitals doctors claim they were fired for trying to unionize; the hospital said it was misconduct Catastrophic flooding on July 4 has killed at least 120 people, reported The Associated Press. More than 170 people also have been reported missing. President Donald Trump was expected to survey the devastation by air on Friday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Did cloud seeding cause Texas floods? Misinformation spreads as severe flooding strikes US
Severe flooding has swept across multiple parts of the U.S. in recent weeks — from Texas, where more than 100 people were killed during deadly flash floods over Fourth of July weekend, to New Mexico's village of Ruidoso which also flooded last year, and North Carolina, which reported multiple fatalities and after Tropical Storm Chantal dumped heavy rains on the state. As the devastation spreads, so have baseless claims: Thousands of social media users have shared conspiracy theories blaming the floods on cloud seeding — a weather-modification practice that experts say is not only unrelated to recent storms but is rarely used in emergencies, especially in the humid, storm-prone South. Even a congressional candidate has alleged that humans manipulated the weather behind the Fourth of July weekend floods in Texas, which left at least 120 people dead and more than 170 still missing. Kandiss Taylor, who is running for Georgia's District 1 seat in the U.S. House, posted on X early Saturday — just one day after flash flooding in the Texas Hill Country swept away 27 girls from the riverside Camp Mystic, and as rising waters in the Austin area killed at least 16 more with 12 missing. 'Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake.' In another post that day she wrote: 'This isn't just 'climate change.' It's cloud seeding, geoengineering, & manipulation,' she added. '"Fake weather causes real tragedy, that's murder. Pray. Prepare. Question the narrative.' But experts say cloud seeding is not to blame for the recent floods across the United States. Instead, the widespread flooding was driven by a convergence of moisture from two tropical systems lingering in the atmosphere. Just days earlier, Tropical Storm Barry made landfall on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, while another system stalled over the Gulf, pumping deep tropical moisture into the southern U.S. That moisture fueled the catastrophic floods in Texas Hill Country, where the Guadalupe River surged 30 feet in less than an hour early Friday. Still, as misinformation runs rampant on TikTok and other platforms, meteorologists and climate experts have been quick to debunk false claims. Cloud seeding is a form of weather modification first developed in the 1940s to help boost rainfall or snowfall in drought-prone or arid regions. The process involves injecting a small amount of a chemical — typically silver iodide — into an existing cloud to encourage the formation of larger water droplets or ice crystals, according to ABC13 meteorologist Travis Herzog. Most clouds don't naturally produce rain or snow because the droplets or crystals inside them are too small to fall. But silver iodide acts as a large 'cloud condensation nucleus,' helping water vapor clump together into heavier droplets or crystals that gravity can pull down to the ground, Herzog explained in a Facebook post. It is not allowed on storms that could produce severe weather, tornadoes or flash floods, Herzog wrote. There are both federal regulations and state regulations for cloud seeding and other forms of weather modification. A cloud seeding project took place in Pleasanton, about 150 miles southeast of Kerr County, on July 2, according to reports from Rainmaker, one of the weather modification companies in the U.S. But experts emphasize that the cloud seeding did not trigger the severe weather and sought to bring modest rainfall to the area, which has experienced persistent drought conditions for several years. Once a cloud is seeded, it releases its moisture quickly and does not continue producing rain beyond that initial burst, according to meteorologists. There have been several rounds of rainmaking efforts in South Texas since March, according to data from Rainmaker. "Even though cloud seeding was not responsible for the Hill Country floods, I know there are moral and ethical concerns when it comes to modifying the weather (or any natural Earth system), however small those modifications may be," Herzog wrote, adding, "and the topic is worth more public discourse and scrutiny." This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: What is cloud seeding? Theories spread as major floods strike US