Monday, August 23 top stories
Hello I’m Kriston Pumphrey taking Alex’s place this week for top stories.” Ready for the news?
In the area west of Nashville in towns of Waverly, McEwen and outlying areas of Middle Tennessee up to 17 inches of rain fell in less than 24 hours which beats the previous record by more than 3 inches.. At least 22 people are confirmed dead with 40 missing.
Biden expressed his condolences and said he has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to work with Governor Lee right away and to offer any assistance.
The Pentagon activated a rarely used program called the Civil Reserve Air Fleet to compel airlines to provide aircraft to help fly Afghanistan evacuees.
The order is for 18 aircraft: three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, and Omni Air; two from Hawaiian Airlines; and four from United Airlines. The commercial planes would not fly into Kabul but instead would be used to transport those who have already been flown out of the country to military bases.
The COVID-19 vaccine for people 16 and up from Pfizer and partner BioNTech received full approval Monday from the FDA, (The Food and Drug Administration). Public health officials and vaccine experts hope the approval will encourage hesitant populations to get the shot.
The vaccine was first cleared in December on an emergency-use basis and has passed its 6 months safety data collection and analysis. The two-dose shot, resulting from the fastest vaccine development ever in the West, has since become the most-received Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S..
The next approval Pfizer will seek is the vaccine for children as young as 12 which was authorized for emergency use in May.
In other Covid-19 related news...
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...two Florida school districts voted to defy the state rules and continue to require masks. Governor DeSantis’s office and the education board of Florida gives the Alachua and Broward school districts 48 hours to change course or lose funding from the state equal to the salaries of their board members.
Leaders in both school districts told ABC News Friday that they will not reverse their mask mandates and will take legal action against the state as board members believe what the governor is doing is not lawful.
The school districts in Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, and Palm Beach counties also voted this week to impose mask mandates for students. Hillsborough school district currently has 10,ooo children quarantined or isolated a week into the school year.
Also happening in Florida is a liquid oxygen shortage in hospitals...
...with 150,000 new COVID cases for the second week in Florida, the city of Orlando has asked its residents to cut back on its use of water for several weeks because of a shortage of liquid oxygen. The city uses the liquid oxygen in the drinking water supply to stop discoloration and a rotten-egg smell.
COVID-19 patients need the oxygen to help them breathe and the demand for it is high. The Orlando Sentinel newspaper reports on its website that the city has already stopped watering its parks and ballfields to conserve water.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer asked residents to stop washing their cars, watering their lawns, and using pressure washers for two to three weeks.
That’s all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/22/biden-administration-activates-civil-reserve-air-fleet.html
https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-school-districts-48-hours-reverse-mask-mandates/story?id=79565155
https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/liquid-oxygen-needed-covid-19-patients-not-cars