Latest news with #SteveGorman
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Texas flood death toll rises to 131 as new storms loom
By Steve Gorman (Reuters) -The official tally of storm-related deaths across Texas rose to 131 on Monday as authorities warned of yet another round of heavy rains 10 days after a Hill Country flash flood that transformed the Guadalupe River into a killer torrent. A National Weather Service flood watch forecasting heavy downpours of up to half a foot of rain was posted until Tuesday morning for a wide swath of central Texas extending from the Rio Grande east to San Antonio and Austin. The advisory included Kerr County and other parts of Texas Hill Country along the Guadalupe still recovering from the July 4 flood disaster, which ravaged the county seat of Kerrville and a riverside Christian summer camp for girls in the nearby town of Hunt. Riverfront residents as well as search teams still combing the banks of the waterway were advised to seek higher ground until the latest danger had passed. The search for additional victims along the Guadalupe was likewise suspended due to flood concerns on Sunday. Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Monday said storms had claimed at least 131 lives in Texas since July 4, the bulk of those deaths in and around Kerrville, up from 120 reported on Friday. He said 97 people were still listed as missing in the greater Kerrville area, down from the 160-plus who authorities said were unaccounted for last week. About a third of the Kerr County fatalities are children, most of whom perished at Camp Mystic when floodwaters raged through the girls-only summer retreat before dawn on July 4. Authorities have not rescued anyone alive since the day of the floods, when more than a foot of rain fell in less than an hour in the heart of a region known as "flash flood alley," sending a deadly wall of water down the Guadalupe River basin. Abbott said state lawmakers would investigate the circumstances of the flooding, disaster preparedness and emergency response to the flooding at a special legislative session set to convene later this month. The high casualty toll, ranking as one of the deadliest U.S. flood events in decades, has raised questions about the lack of flash-flood warning sirens in Kerr County and vacancies left at National Weather Service offices amid staffing cuts under the Trump administration.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Waldameer's Steel Dragon roller coaster is not running. When will it open this summer?
The Steel Dragon, a Waldameer Park & Water World roller coaster, turns 21 in July. Before park officials can celebrate the compact steel spinning roller coaster's milestone birthday, they'll have to await control panel updates. Steve Gorman, president of Waldameer and Water World, said the updates are taking longer than expected, which is why the ride has been idle to start the 2025 season. "Unfortunately, we thought we'd be on time for completion for early May, but we were really surprised that it was delayed," Gorman said. Gorman said that officials at Waldameer are just as surprised as the general public that updates are taking longer than expected. Roller coaster mechanics: The people who help keep Waldameer rides open "We agreed to do that in September and now it's been seven or eight months...," Gorman said. "They're just really far behind with electrical parts in the country with supply chain issues. Control panels are delayed a lot around the country." Gorman says the entire control panel, including electrical components and the cabinet that houses the software for the Steel Dragon are being repaired. "We decided that the control system for it was getting old and we wanted to update it," Gorman said. "Instead of using the German company for the controls, which we had issues with getting parts, we went with an American company to updates all of the controls on the Steel Dragon." Waldameer officials are hopeful that the steel roller coaster will be back up and operating soon. "We're supposed to have an update by Thursday (June 5)," Gorman said. "So we expect to have the ride open in about two weeks or so. Definitely by July 4; they said we should be good." The Steel Dragon debuted at the park 21 years ago on July 4. Contact Nicholas Sorensen at nsorensen@ This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Steel Dragon gets software updates, delaying ride's 2025 opening
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Musk aiming to send uncrewed Starship to Mars by end of 2026
By Steve Gorman and Joey Roulette LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Two days after the latest in a string of test-flight setbacks for his big new Mars spacecraft, Starship, Elon Musk said on Thursday he foresees the futuristic vehicle making its first uncrewed voyage to the red planet at the end of next year. Musk presented a detailed Starship development timeline in a video posted online by his Los Angeles area-based rocket company, SpaceX, a day after saying he was departing the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump as head of a tumultuous campaign to slash government bureaucracy. The billionaire entrepreneur had said earlier that he was planning to scale back his role in government to focus greater attention on his various businesses, including SpaceX and electric car and battery maker Tesla Inc. Musk acknowledged that his latest timeline for reaching Mars hinged on whether Starship can accomplish a number of challenging technical feats during its flight-test development, particularly a post-launch refueling maneuver in Earth orbit. The end of 2026 would coincide with a slim window that occurs once every two years when Mars and Earth align around the sun for the closest trip between the two planets, which would take seven to nine months to transit by spacecraft. Musk gave his company a 50-50 chance of meeting that deadline. If Starship were not ready by that time, SpaceX would wait another two years before trying again, Musk suggested in the video. The first flight to Mars would carry a simulated crew consisting of one or more robots of the Tesla-built humanoid Optimus design, with the first human crews following in the second or third landings. Musk said he envisioned eventually launching 1,000 to 2,000 ships to Mars every two years to quickly establish a self-sustaining permanent human settlement. NASA is currently aiming to return humans to the surface of the moon aboard Starship as early as 2027 - more than 50 years after its last manned lunar landings of the Apollo era - as a stepping stone toward ultimately launching astronauts to Mars sometime in the 2030s. Musk, who has advocated for a more Mars-focused human spaceflight program, has previously said he was aiming to send an unmanned SpaceX vehicle to the red planet as early as 2018 and was targeting 2024 to launch a first crewed mission there. The SpaceX founder was scheduled to deliver a livestream presentation billed as "The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary" from the company's Starbase, Texas, launch site on Tuesday night, following a ninth test flight of Starship that evening. But the webcast was canceled without notice after Starship spun out of control and disintegrated in a fireball about 30 minutes after launch and roughly halfway through its flight path without achieving some of its most important test goals. Two preceding test flights in January and March failed in more spectacular fashion, with the spacecraft blowing to pieces on ascent moments after liftoff, raining debris over parts of the Caribbean and forcing scores of commercial jetliners to change course as a precaution. Musk shrugged off the latest mishap on Tuesday with a brief post on X, saying it produced a lot of "good data to review" and promising a faster launch "cadence" for the next several test flights.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Swath of Texas swelters in record-setting spring heat wave
By Steve Gorman (Reuters) - Large swaths of central and south Texas sweltered for a second day under a record-setting springtime heat wave on Thursday, as forecasters warned residents of the region to stay hydrated and limit strenuous outdoor activities. The National Weather Service posted heat advisories across 15 Texas counties stretching from the Rio Grande and Texas Hill Country to the Gulf of Mexico where temperatures were climbing 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (8 to 11 degrees Celsius) above normal into the upper-90s and triple-digit readings Fahrenheit (upper 30s Celsius). An area of central Texas encompassing San Antonio and the state capital of Austin was expected to see heat-index values - a measure of how warm it feels with air temperatures and relative humidity combined - running as high as 109 degrees F (42.7 C). The heat index was forecast to reach 110 F in the border town of Laredo on the Rio Grande and to top out at 112 F (44.4 C) in the oil field hub of Alice, inland from Corpus Christi. Houston was expected to feel almost brisk by comparison with a maximum heat index expected at 101 F. The 100-degree peak air temperature recorded on Wednesday at Austin-Bergstrom Airport marked an all-time high for that date, and forecasters said Thursday's daily record, 96 degrees F in 2003, was expected to be shattered as well. The Weather Service said more high heat and humidity were in store through the weekend and into early next week, with sauna-like conditions expected to crest on Friday. While no single extreme-weather event can be easily attributed to global warming, scientists generally agree that episodes of unseasonably high temperatures are becoming more frequent, prolonged and pronounced as a consequence of climate change. To prevent heat exhaustion or heat stroke, residents were urged to avoid over-exertion outdoors, run their air-conditioning indoors, drink plenty of fluids and wear lightweight clothing. The torrid Texas weather was part of a larger dome of above-average heat building over large stretches of the U.S. from the central and southern Plains east to the Atlantic coast into Florida, according to forecasters.
Mint
15-05-2025
- Climate
- Mint
Swath of Texas swelters in record-setting spring heat wave
May 15 (Reuters) - Large swaths of central and south Texas sweltered for a second day under a record-setting springtime heat wave on Thursday, as forecasters warned residents of the region to stay hydrated and limit strenuous outdoor activities. The National Weather Service posted heat advisories across 15 Texas counties stretching from the Rio Grande and Texas Hill Country to the Gulf of Mexico where temperatures were climbing 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (8 to 11 degrees Celsius) above normal into the upper-90s and triple-digit readings Fahrenheit (upper 30s Celsius). An area of central Texas encompassing San Antonio and the state capital of Austin was expected to see heat-index values - a measure of how warm it feels with air temperatures and relative humidity combined - running as high as 109 degrees F (42.7 C). The heat index was forecast to reach 110 F in the border town of Laredo on the Rio Grande and to top out at 112 F (44.4 C) in the oil field hub of Alice, inland from Corpus Christi. Houston was expected to feel almost brisk by comparison with a maximum heat index expected at 101 F. The 100-degree peak air temperature recorded on Wednesday at Austin-Bergstrom Airport marked an all-time high for that date, and forecasters said Thursday's daily record, 96 degrees F in 2003, was expected to be shattered as well. The Weather Service said more high heat and humidity were in store through the weekend and into early next week, with sauna-like conditions expected to crest on Friday. While no single extreme-weather event can be easily attributed to global warming, scientists generally agree that episodes of unseasonably high temperatures are becoming more frequent, prolonged and pronounced as a consequence of climate change. To prevent heat exhaustion or heat stroke, residents were urged to avoid over-exertion outdoors, run their air-conditioning indoors, drink plenty of fluids and wear lightweight clothing. The torrid Texas weather was part of a larger dome of above-average heat building over large stretches of the U.S. from the central and southern Plains east to the Atlantic coast into Florida, according to forecasters. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra Maler)
