Stepping Stones: The Path To Red Rocks '22

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FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers evacuated stunned survivors on a large barrier island cut off by Hurricane Ian and Florida's death toll climbed sharply, as hundreds of thousands of people were still sweltering without power days after the monster storm rampaged from the state's southwestern coast up to the Carolinas.Florida, with nearly four dozen reported dead, was hit hardest by the Category 4 hurricane, one of the strongest to make landfall in the United States. Flooded roadways and washed-out bridges to barrier islands left many people isolated, amid limited cellphone service and a lack of basic amenities such as water, electricity and the internet.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday that multibillionaire businessman Elon Musk was providing some 120 Starlink satellites to “help bridge some of the communication issues.” Starlink, a satellite-based internet system created by Musk's SpaceX, will provide high-speed connectivity.Florida utilities were working to restore power. As of Saturday night, nearly 1 million homes and businesses were still without electricity, down from a peak of 2.67 million.At least 54 people lost their lives: 47 in Florida, four in North Carolina and three in Cuba. The weakened storm was expected to dump rain Sunday on Virginia and West Virginia as it dissipates, according to the National Weather Service.More than 1,000 people were rescued from flooded areas along Florida's southwestern coast alone, Daniel Hokanson, a four-star general and head of the National Guard, told The Associated Press while airborne to Florida.In Washington, the White House announced that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden would travel to Florida on Wednesday. But a brief statement did not release any details of the planned visit.The bridge to Pine Island, the largest barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast, was destroyed by the storm, leaving it accessible only by boat or air. The volunteer group Medic Corps, which responds to natural disasters worldwide with pilots, paramedics and doctors, went door-to-door asking residents if they wanted to be evacuated.Some flew out by helicopter, and people described the horror of being trapped in their homes as water kept rising.“The water just kept pounding the house and we watched, boats, houses — we watched everything just go flying by,” Joe Conforti said, fighting back tears. He said if it wasn’t for his wife, who suggested they get up on a table to avoid the rising water, he wouldn’t have made it: “I started to lose sensibility, because when the water’s at your door and it’s splashing on the door and you’re seeing how fast it’s moving, there’s no way you’re going to survive that.”River flooding posed a major challenge at times to rescue and supply delivery efforts. The Myakka River washed over a stretch of Interstate 75, forcing a traffic-snarling highway closure for a while before officials said later Saturday that it could be reopened.While swollen rivers have crested or are near cresting, the levels aren’t expected to drop significantly for days, National Weather Service meteorologist Tyler Fleming said.Elsewhere, South Carolina's Pawleys Island, a beach community roughly 75 miles (115 kilometers) up the coast from Charleston, was also hit hard. Power remained knocked out to at least half the island Saturday.Eddie Wilder, who has been coming to Pawleys Island for more than six decades, said it was “insane” to see waves as high as 25 feet (7.6 meters) wash away a landmark pier near his home.“We watched it hit the pier and saw the pier disappear,” he said. “We watched it crumble and and watched it float by with an American flag.”Wilder's house, located 30 feet (9 meters) above the shoreline, stayed dry inside.In North Carolina, the storm downed trees and power lines. Two of the four deaths in the state were from storm-related vehicle crashes, and the others involved a man who drowned when his truck plunged into a swamp and another killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator in a garage.At Port Sanibel Marina in Fort Myers, Florida, the storm surge pushed several boats and a dock onshore. Charter captain Ryan Kane said his vessel was so badly damaged that he was unable to use it to help rescue people, and now it will be a long time before he can take clients fishing again.“There’s a hole in the hull. It took water in the motors. It took water in everything,” he said, adding: “You know, boats are supposed to be in the water, not in parking lots."___Kinnard reported from Pawleys Island, South Carolina; Associated Press contributors include Freida Frisaro in Miami; Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida; Gerald Herbert in Pine Island, Florida; Mike Pesoli in Lehigh Acres, Florida; Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia; and Amy Forliti from Minneapolis.

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Image showing damage done on island surrounded with water

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Florida, with nearly four dozen lives lost, was hit hardest by the Category 4 hurricane, one of the strongest to make landfall in the United States. 

After Ian, Focus Turns To Rescue, Recovery And Clean Up

LBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Hundreds of hot air balloons lifted off Saturday morning, marking the start of an annual fiesta that has drawn pilots and spectators from across the globe to New Mexico’s high desert for 50 years now.As one of the most photographed events in the world, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has become an economic driver for the state’s largest city and a rare — and colorful — opportunity for enthusiasts to be within arm's reach as the giant balloons are unpacked and inflated.Three of the original pilots who participated in the first fiesta in 1972 and the family members of others are among this year’s attendees. That year, 13 balloons launched from an open lot near a shopping center on what was then the edge of Albuquerque. It has since grown into a multimillion-dollar production.Pilot Gene Dennis, 78, remembers the snow storm that almost caused him to miss that first fiesta. He had to rearrange his flight plans from Michigan so he could make it to Albuquerque in time.The weather was perfect when he got to New Mexico, said Dennis, who flew under the alias “Captain Phairweather.” He was quoted at the time as saying he had brought good weather with him.He was on the hook again, as pilots hope predictions for the rest of opening weekend are fair.“Ballooning is infectious,” Dennis said, describing being aloft like drifting in a dream, quietly observing the countryside below.This year will mark Roman Müller's first time flying in the fiesta. He's piloting a special-shaped balloon that was modeled after a chalet at the top of a famous Swiss bobsled run. One of his goals will be flying over the Rio Grande and getting low enough to dip the gondola into the river.“This is my plan,” he said, with a wide smile while acknowledging that it's not always easy to fly a balloon.One thing that helps, he said, is the phenomenon known as the Albuquerque box — when the wind blows in opposite directions at different elevations, allowing skillful pilots to bring a balloon back to near the point of takeoff.Dennis said it took a few years of holding the fiesta to realize the predictability of the wind patterns allowed for balloons to remain close to the launch field, giving spectators quite a show.Tens of thousands of people packed the field Saturday, wide-eyed with necks craned as they tried to soak in the spectacle.Denise Wiederkehr McDonald was a passenger in her father's balloon during the first fiesta. She made the trip from Colorado to participate in a re-enactment of that 1972 flight on Friday. Her father, Matt Wiederkehr, was one of the first 10 hot air balloon pilots in the U.S. and held numerous world records for distance and duration and built a successful advertising business with his fleet of balloons.Wiederkehr McDonald, who went on to set her own ballooning records before becoming a commercial airline pilot, was wearing one of her father's faded ballooning jackets and held a cardboard cutout of him as the balloon she was riding in lifted off.She recalled a childhood full of experiences centered on ballooning.“I remember the first time being down in the balloons with them all standing up and inflating and not being able to see the sky because it was all colored fabric. And then the other thing was the first balloon glow at night. Oh, my gosh,” she said. “There were a lot of firsts that I took for granted back then but really look back and appreciate so much now.”The fiesta has grown to include a cadre of European ballooning professionals. More than 20 countries are represented this year, including Switzerland, Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Taiwan and Ukraine.It also serves as the launching venue for the America's Challenge Gas Balloon Race, one of the world's premier distance races for gas balloons.

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Image shows dozens of hot air balloons in the sky with spectators on the ground

As one of the most photographed events in the world, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has become an economic driver for the state’s largest city. 

Annual Hot Air Balloon Festival Draws Global Audience To US

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hurricane Orlene grew to Category 3 strength on Sunday as it headed toward Mexico's northwest Pacific coast between the tourist towns of Mazatlan and San Blas.After growing into a hurricane Saturday, Orlene quickly added power, and had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 kph) on Sunday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. That was slightly below its Category 4 peak of 130 mph (215 kph) earlier in the day.The storm was forecast to roar past the Islas Marias, a former prison colony being developed as a tourist draw, late Sunday or early Monday and then head for a sparsely populated, lagoon-dotted stretch of mainland by late Monday.Orlene was centered about 95 miles (155 kilometers) southwest of Cabo Corrientes — a point of land that juts into the Pacific just south of Puerto Vallarta — and was headed north at 8 mph (13 kph) early Sunday.A hurricane warning was in effect from San Blas to Mazatlan.The center said the storm would likely strengthen more Sunday, then begin weakening as its moved closer to land. But it was still projected to hit as a hurricane.It could bring flood-inducing rainfall of up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) in some places, as well as coastal flooding and dangerous surf.The ports of Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta were closed to ships and Mexico's navy announced that ports including San Blas and Nuevo Vallarta were closed to small craft.Mexico's National Water Commission said Orlene could cause “mudslides, rising river and stream levels, and flooding in low-lying areas.”The hurricane center described Orlene as a small storm, with hurricane-force winds extending out about 15 miles (30 kilometers) from the center and tropical storm-force winds out to 70 miles (110 kilometers).

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Hazardous conditions can occur outside of the cone

After growing into a hurricane Saturday, Orlene quickly added power, and had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 kph) on Sunday.

Cat. 3 Hurricane Orlene Heads For Mexico's Pacific Coast

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RAGUE (AP) — The heads of nine European NATO members on Sunday issued a joint statement backing a path to membership for Ukraine in the U.S.-led security alliance, and calling on all 30 NATO nations to ramp up military aid for Kyiv.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise move Friday to apply for fast-track NATO membership, in response to Russia's annexation of four regions of Ukraine.NATO membership needs approval from all 30 members and Ukraine is unlikely to join anytime soon. Being a country already at war complicates the request.The nine NATO countries in Central and Eastern Europe fearful that Russia could target them next if it isn't stopped in Ukraine urged a response to the annexation.The leaders of Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Slovakia published a statement on their websites Sunday saying: “We support Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion, demand (that Russia) immediately withdraw from all the occupied territories and encourage all allies to substantially increase their military aid to Ukraine."It said the leaders “firmly stood behind the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit decision concerning Ukraine’s future membership.” At the 2008 summit, NATO members welcomed Ukraine and Georgia’s aspirations to join, but declined to provide a clear timeline for the two countries’ possible ascension. Sunday's letter didn't mention a timeline, either.Asked Friday about Zelenskyy’s application for accelerated NATO membership, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the application process in Brussels “should be taken up at a different time.”NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was noncommittal when asked about Zelenskyy’s appeal to join.Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by Putin, derided the move, saying that Zelenskyy’s request amounts to “begging NATO to accelerate the start of World War III.”Spurred into action by security concerns over Russia’s invasion, Finland and Sweden officially applied to join NATO in May using an accelerated procedure. Most member countries have already ratified their applications and the two Nordic nations are on track to join in record time.___

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NATO membership needs approval from all 30 members and Ukraine is unlikely to join anytime soon.

9 NATO Members Urge Support For Ukraine After Annexation

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Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

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Stepping Stones: The Path To Red Rocks '22

Featuring Jordan Feliz & Danny Gokey

Verse of the Day

Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Romans 12:10-11 (NLT)

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