Texas scientists search for potentially virulent new omicron COVID-19 variant as state health officials push vaccination
So much is unknown about the new COVID-19 variant: the severity of the illness it causes, whether it can resist vaccines and natural antibodies and whether itโs more contagious than the delta variant that has burned through Texas and the U.S. for months.
Most populous Texas county defies governor with mask mandate
Texasโ most populous county has joined the legal battle by local officials seeking to override Gov. Greg Abbottโs ban on mask mandates and institute protections against COVID-19 as hospitals around the state continue to swell with patients sickened by the virus.
How worried should we be about the Delta variant? University Health expert has answers to latest FAQs
With the recent rise in the number of hospitalizations in San Antonio, coupled with a concern over the Delta variant, University Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bryan Alsip answered a series of frequently asked questions.
62 percent of Bexar County residents over 12 have been fully vaccinated, another 100,000 due for second shot
The latest Bexar County numbers show 61.9 percent of residents 12 years and older are fully vaccinated, while 74.7 percent have had at least one dose. However, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District says slightly more than 100,000 people are overdue for their second shot, and people in the 12 to 35-year-old age range still have lower rates of vaccinations.
Airlines close books on rotten 2020 and so far, 2021 is grim
An American Airlines Boeing 777 is framed by utility wires as it prepares to land at Miami International Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021, in Miami. And now a halting rollout of vaccines threatens to further delay a recovery in travel and the travel industry. On Thursday, as airlines reported results, a new coronavirus variant identified in South Africa was found in the United States for the first time, with two cases diagnosed in South Carolina. โTravel restrictions on international have resulted in a reduction in demand,โ American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said. Ad___JETBLUE AIRWAYSJetBlue reported a loss of $381 million, after reporting a profit in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Most major US airlines ban guns in luggage for DC flights
Delta, United and Alaska airlines said Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021 they will bar passengers flying to Washington from putting guns in checked bags. Delta Air Lines was the first to announce Thursday that it will prohibit checking guns to Washington-area airports and was soon followed by United, Alaska and American. American Airlines is bringing back a ban on serving alcohol on flights to and from the Washington area โ flights go dry starting Saturday through next Thursday. Price also said that it is โa good ideaโ to prohibit passengers from putting guns in checked bags if they are flying to Washington. Federal law allows passengers to put guns in checked baggage if they are unloaded and in a locked, hard-sided case, although airlines have the discretion to ban guns.
Amazon edges out H-E-B as 2020โฒs top grocer, report shows
An Amazon logo appears on an Amazon delivery van, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)SAN ANTONIO โ Amazon has edged out the Texas grocery giant H-E-B as the nationโs top grocery store, according to a recent report by Dunnhumby, a global consumer science company. According to the study, Amazon jumped ahead two places from last yearโs report and dethroned H-E-B, who topped the list for 2019. The study cited momentum from the COVID-19 pandemic and a customer value proposition all for ingredients of Amazonโs projected success in 2021. โThey also are second in Speed and first in Digital, two of the most important preference drivers for Covid Momentum.
Amazon buys 11 jets for 1st time to ship orders faster
An Amazon logo appears on an Amazon delivery van, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020, in Boston. Amazon said Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, that it bought 11 jets from Delta and WestJet airlines to boost its growing delivery network and get orders to shoppers faster. The company said its the first time it purchased planes for its delivery network. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)NEW YORK โ Amazon said Tuesday that it bought 11 jets from Delta and WestJet airlines to boost its growing delivery network and get orders to shoppers faster. The company said it's the first time it has purchased planes for its delivery network.
2 months after hurricanes, Louisiana residents still hurting
โ As southwest Louisiana recovers from the back-to-back hurricanes that hammered the region this year, signs of progress compete with lingering evidence of mass destruction. Hurricane Laura roared ashore in southwestern Louisiana on Aug. 27 as a Category 4 storm just south of Lake Charles. According to Louisiana government figures, nearly 47,000 homes were damaged by Hurricane Laura, with about 16,000 of those in need of major repairs. The bulk of those homes are in Calcasieu Parish, home to the state's fifth-largest city, Lake Charles, with 80,000 residents. A Facebook group set up after Hurricane Laura has become a lifeline for struggling residents.
WATCH: Lackland Air Force base kicks off tree lighting ceremony, the first of several holiday celebrations
SAN ANTONIO โ The holiday season is kicking off in Military City, USA, beginning with a tree lighting ceremony at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on Wednesday. Each area base location will participate in the annual holiday event. Joint Base San Antonio-Randolphโs takes place on Dec. 3 and Joint Base-Fort Sam Houstonโs will take place on Dec. 4. The ceremony will begin at 6 p.m., and a parade will follow the event beginning at 6:15 p.m., according to a statement from base officials. โThe holiday season can be difficult, especially when away from loved ones,โ base officials said in a statement.
Gulf Coast braces, again, for hurricane as Zeta takes aim
Tourists walk on the beach as the tail end of Hurricane Zeta makes landfall in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, early Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. Zeta, the 27th named storm of a very busy Atlantic hurricane season, was a hurricane when it began raking across Mexicoโs Yucatan Peninsula early Tuesday. It emerged in the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm but was expected to regain hurricane strength before landfall south of New Orleans on Wednesday evening. Officials in two Mexican states hit by Zeta reported power outages and damage caused by downed trees, but no deaths. The extraordinarily busy hurricane season has focused attention on the role of climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms.
Winds and rain whip Yucatan resorts as Hurricane Zeta nears
Clouds gather over Playa Gaviota Azul as Tropical Storm Zeta approaches Cancun, Mexico, early Monday morning, Oct. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Victor Ruiz Garcia)MIAMI โ Hurricane Zeta lashed Mexico's Caribbean coast resorts around Tulum with high winds and rain Monday night as it headed toward the Yucatan Peninsula and then a possible landfall on the central U.S. Gulf Coast at midweek. It was the second time this month that boat captain Francisco Sosa Rosado had to perform the same maneuver, after Hurricane Delta hit the resort in early October. Trees felled by Hurricane Delta barely three weeks earlier still littered parts of Cancun, stacked along roadsides and in parks. There was also a Tropical Storm Zeta in 2005, but that year had 28 storms because meteorologists later went back and found they missed one, which then became an โunnamed named storm."
Louisiana's back-to-back hurricanes: Future unsure for many
Blue tarps cover houses in the aftermath of Hurricane Delta, Saturday Oct. 10, 2020, in Iowa, La. โ Michele Vincentโs home was largely intact in spite of hurricanes Laura and Delta. Coastal Cameron Parish had about 9,800 residents when Hurricane Rita hit in 2005. โLeave Cameron Parish and go into Calcasieu it's bad there too. They were the only red lights we had in Cameron Parish.
The 9@9: Amy Barrett confirmation hearings; hurricane Delta aftermath; Lakers win NBA Finals
The 9@9: Amy Barrett confirmation hearings; hurricane Delta aftermath; Lakers win NBA FinalsPublished: October 12, 2020, 9:36 amThe 9@9 features some of the biggest stories making headlines at home, around the country and across the globe. Hereโs whatโs trending.
'We canโt lose our momentum:' Louisiana vows to rebuild
A 70-year-old woman in Iberia Parish died in a fire likely caused by a natural gas leak following damage from Hurricane Delta, the Louisiana Department of Health said Sunday. Clair Hebert Marceaux lost her home in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, during Hurricane Laura and said the community was hard at work on rebuilding when Delta struck. โWe canโt lose our momentum,โ she said, though she added there was โutter devastationโ in the area. Earnestine and Milton Wesley had decided to ride out Delta in their Lake Charles home, damaged by Laura. โAnd with Godโs help we made it.โAfter blowing ashore, Delta moved over Lake Charles, a city where Laura damaged nearly every home and building.
Delta adds insult to injury in hurricane-ravaged Louisiana
Marcus Peterson walks past a downed tree in his yard after Hurricane Delta moved through, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020, in Jennings, La. It then moved over Lake Charles, a city where Hurricane Laura damaged nearly every home and building in late August. While Delta was a weaker storm than Category 4 Laura, it brought significantly more flooding, Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said. Forecasters warned that heavy rain, storm surges and flash floods continued to pose dangers in areas from Texas to Mississippi. They arrived back in Lake Charles last weekend, got a new roof on Monday and had to evacuate again Thursday.
WATCH LIVE: Beach cameras show Delta rolling into the Gulf Coast
Click here for a live view from Grand Isle Beach. Click here for a live view from Galvestonโs East Beach. Click here for a live view from Galveston Beach. Click here for a live view from the Port Aransas beach. Click here for a live view from the South Padre beach.
Thereโs a chance for record-breaking heat this weekend
SAN ANTONIO โ Get ready for a Summer weekend! High temperatures this week have been averaging about 5 degrees above normal, with temperatures right around 90 degrees, KSAT Meteorologist Mike Osterhage said. Thatโll be about 10 degrees above normal, but a few degrees below the record of 98 degrees, Osterhage said. On top of that, San Antonio has never seen 100 degrees in October, but that will also be within reach. Sunday high tempsAs always, stick with KSAT 12 News, your Weather Authority for the latest weather updates.
Hurricane Delta inflicts new damage on storm-weary Louisiana
This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken Friday, Oct. 9, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. โ Ripping tarps from already damaged roofs and scattering debris piled by roadsides, Hurricane Delta inflicted a new round of destruction on Louisiana as it struck communities still reeling after Hurricane Laura took a similar path just six weeks earlier. Delta's reach stretched as far west as Galveston, Texas, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from where the storm struck Louisiana. Tropical Storm Marco fizzled as it hit the southeast Louisiana tip just three days before Laura struck. โThe wind is much worse than what Hurricane Laura brought,โ Gove said in a message on Twitter.
Experts: Warming makes Delta, other storms power up faster
This Oct. 8, 2020 photo made available by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Delta in the Gulf of Mexico at 12:41 p.m. EDT. Delta is the sixth storm this year and the second in a week to reach the threshold, Lillo calculated. Hurricanes Hannah, Laura, Sally and Teddy and tropical storm Gamma all gained at least 35 mph (56 kph) in strength in 24 hours. This year is particularly nasty and Delta is a good example, said study co-author Gabriel Vecchi, a Princeton climate scientist. โThis season has given a lot of examples of these rapidly intensifying storms that we expect to be more common,โ Princetonโs Vecchi said.
Can we retire a Greek hurricane name? Delta made us wonder.
Louisiana residents who are still recovering from the devastation of a powerful hurricane less than two months ago braced for another hit as Hurricane Delta steamed north through the Gulf on Thursday after swiping Mexicoโs Yucatan Peninsula, the Associated Press reported. โThey do not retire Greek alphabet storm names -- at least so far,โ Gross said. The last time we went through all the letters of the alphabet and moved on to the Greek alphabet was 2005. In 2005, a record-breaking year of devastating hurricanes, we made it through six Greek letters. The Committee also agreed that it was not practical to retire into hurricane history a letter in the Greek alphabet.
'This is not a bad dream': New hurricane menaces Louisiana
Louisiana residents still recovering from the devastation of a powerful hurricane less than two months ago braced for another hit as Hurricane Delta steamed north through the Gulf on Thursday after swiping Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula. The projected path included the southwest area of Louisiana where Category 4 Hurricane Laura made landfall less than two months ago. Randazzo watched pieces of one of his restaurants, Panorama Music House, fly past a meteorologistโs car on a Facebook Live video during Hurricane Laura. The most recent forecast for Hurricane Delta has the storm making landfall โalmost preciselyโ where Hurricane Laura struck โ a region where homes and electrical infrastructure are still damaged, Edwards said in a radio interview. New Orleans, well to the east of the projected landfall area, was expected to escape the worst of Hurricane Delta.
Busy 2020 hurricane season has Louisiana bracing a 6th time
The storm being watched Wednesday was Hurricane Delta, the 25th named storm of the Atlantic's unprecedented hurricane season. Forecasts placed most of Louisiana within Delta's path, with the latest National Hurricane Center estimating landfall in the state on Friday. Along with getting hit by Hurricane Laura and escaping Hurricane Sally, Louisiana saw heavy flooding June 7 from Tropical Storm Cristobal. Tropical Storm Beta prompted tropical storm warnings in mid-September as it slowly crawled up the northeast Texas coast. โNot seeing any signs of any additional tropical weather in the extended which is OK with us because we are SO DONE with Hurricane Season 2020,โ they wrote.
Delta makes landfall Friday, weakening Saturday
It has been a record year in the Atlantic, and now the tropics are heating up again. With the Atlantic Hurricane Season ongoing through the end of November, Hurricane Delta looks to enter the record books as one of the rare, very strong storms that occur later in the season. You can also find your local forecast anytime on the KSAT Weather page. Types of Tropical SystemsNot all tropical systems are created equal! Meteorologist Sarah Spivey explains in the video below.
Dangerous Hurricane Delta closing in on Mexico's Yucatan
Fishermen pull in a boat before the arrival of Hurricane Delta in Puerto Juarez, Cancun, Mexico, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. Hurricane Delta rapidly intensified into a potentially catastrophic Category 4 hurricane Tuesday on a course to hammer southeastern Mexico and then continue on to the U.S. Gulf coast this week. (AP Photo/Victor Ruiz Garcia)MEXICO CITY โ Hurricane Delta rapidly intensified into a dangerous Category 4 storm Tuesday while on a course to hammer Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and then continue on to the U.S. Gulf Coast later in the week. From Tulum to Cancun, tourism-dependent communities still soaked by the remnants of Tropical Storm Gamma could bear the brunt of Delta. Delta increased in strength 80 mph, more than doubling from a 60 mph storm at 2 pm EDT Monday to 140 mph at 2 pm EDT Tuesday.
Post-Tropical Remnants Of Delta Continue Weaken, As The Heavy Rainfall Threat Diminishes Late Sunday Night
Location 90 miles S of Knoxville Tennessee Wind 15 mph Heading E at 15 mph Pressure 29.77 Coordinates 84.1W, 34.5NDiscussionAt 1100 PM EDT (0300 UTC), the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Delta was located near latitude 34.5 North, longitude 84.1 West. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the east near 15 mph, and this motion is expected to continue tonight and Monday morning. Maximum sustained winds are near 15 mph (30 km/h) with higher gusts. Some further weakening is possible tonight as a new surface low develops in the Carolinas, and Delta's surface low is expected to be absorbed by this new low pressure area on Monday. Moderate to major river flooring will continue across the Calcasieu and Mermentau river basins in Louisiana through much of next week
Unfriendly skies: Airline workers brace for mass layoffs
About 40,000 workers in the airline industry are facing layoffs on Thursday, Oct. 1, unless Congress comes up with another aid package. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)DETROIT โ The worries are growing for United Airlines flight attendant Jordy Comeaux. Airlines in Europe are expecting years of trouble and have acted quickly to cut jobs even as they get government rescue loans. Allie Malis, an American Airlines flight attendant in Washington, D.C., also faces layoff Thursday. Many United flight attendants, he said, took special leaves with no pay to preserve jobs for others.
Airline CEO: If you insist on not wearing a mask, weโll insist you not fly with us -- from here on out
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian has put out what some are calling an aggressive enforcement of mask-wearing on the companyโs flights. โIf you board the plane and you insist on not wearing your mask, we will insist that you donโt fly Delta into the future,โ Bastian told Today in an interview Wednesday. The CEO said the stance is one heโs taking in order to keep crew and passengers safe during the pandemic. As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Delta flights have been booked to 60% of their capacity, Today reported after speaking with Bastian. โWeโve had some customers indicate that they have (an) underlying condition that makes wearing a mask dangerous for them,โ Bastian said.
Delta reunited this little girl with her doll after her momโs plea on social media
Kenley Britton was devastated when her special "Daddy Doll" went missing on a Delta flight from Connecticut to Atlanta last week, her mother Arielle told CNN. Kenley's father is deployed in the military and Kenley pushes the button a lot, especially when she is trying to sleep. When Britton realized the doll was missing, she posted a plea for help on social media. "We found your doll, Kenley! Britton told CNN that Delta even had a plan in place to ship a recorder to her husband overseas and remake the doll if it could not be found.
Frequent flyer mile programs vary
But can you really get where you want to go using your frequent flyer miles? To find out, Consumer Reports asked staffers to try booking round-trip tickets using their frequent flyer miles with nine programs: Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Jet Blue, Southwest, Spirit, United and US Airways. Spirit required the most miles for the routes staffers checked, followed by US Airways. Whatever you do, Consumer Reports says don't hoard frequent flyer miles. Consumer Reports says that if you can't book a seat using miles, try calling the frequent-flyer service desk.