32 dead as tornadoes torment from Arkansas to Delaware

• April 2, 2023

The death toll rose to 32 Sunday after a batch of ferocious storms and tornadoes devastated communities across the American South and Midwest, while parts of the Southern Plains braced for their own round of severe weather.

The storm outbreak Friday that walloped the country spawned more than 50 tornado reports in at least seven states, where tornadoes crushed homes and businesses, ripped roofs off buildings, splintered trees and sent vehicles flying.

Wynne, Arkansas — where at least four people died — was cleaved in half by one such tornado, leaving a line of destruction from the city’s western limit to its eastern, according to Mayor Jennifer Hobbs, who told CNN Sunday, “We’re just gonna need all the help that we can (get) to help these families recover.”

Deaths have been confirmed across a wide swath of states, with multiple victims reported in Arkansas, Indiana and Tennessee, where the statewide death toll rose to 15 Sunday, officials said. Three of the deaths were in Memphis: Two children and one adult were found dead after police responded to calls about trees that had fallen on homes, the Memphis Police Department said in a news release.

Nine others died in McNairy County, Tennessee, County Mayor Larry Smith confirmed to CNN Sunday. The storm “crossed our county completely from one side to the other,” Sheriff Guy Buck told CNN Saturday evening as authorities continued to search collapsed buildings.

There were at least five deaths in Indiana: Three people were reported dead near Sullivan, according to state police, while the Department of Natural Resources confirmed two dead at a campground in McCormick’s Creek State Park in Owen County.

Among the other deaths were four people killed in Illinois, including one person who died after the roof of the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere collapsed Friday while more than 200 people were gathered for a heavy metal concert, injuring more than two dozen others, according to the city’s fire chief. Three more people were reported dead in Crawford County, Illinois, in the collapse of a residential structure, according to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Eight people were also injured in the storms, according to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Watch: See a video from the devastated areas

State and local officials also reported one person dead in each of the following places: North Little Rock, Arkansas; Madison County, Alabama; and Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Finally, the storm system left another person dead in Delaware’s Sussex County Saturday evening after a structure collapsed, according to the county’s emergency operations center.

The latest spate of damaging weather across the South and Midwest comes just a week after a severe tornado-spawning storm walloped the Southeast, killing at least another 26 people and destroying much of Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

On Sunday, the threat shifted to the Southern Plains, where nearly 13 million people in north Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, face an enhanced — or level 3 of 5 — risk for severe weather in the afternoon and early evening hours, the Storm Prediction Center said.

The Dallas Office of Emergency Management activated its sirens for the city “due to large hail” as flights were grounded at Dallas airports, according to officials.

Both the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport issued ground stops as severe weather rolled into Texas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Flights were temporarily grounded, the FAA said.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for parts of Oklahoma and Texas until 11 pm CDT. There are over 10 million people included in the watch, including areas like Dallas, Forth Worth and Waco.

“Several tornadoes are possible, a couple of which may be strong,” the center said in an update Sunday, adding there was a 10 percent or greater probability of tornadoes between EF-2 and EF-5 strength within 25 miles around the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.

Scattered severe thunderstorms are expected across central to northeast Texas between 2 and 11 p.m. CT, the Storm Prediction Center said. Hail the size of golf balls and damaging wind gusts of up to 70 mph could also pose a threat.

Families in small towns are ‘completely devastated’

In addition to leaving trails of destruction, storms have also knocked out power to battered communities. More than 25,000 customers in Arkansas remained impacted by outages as of Sunday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.US, with hundreds of thousands more without power across the South and Northeast, including more than 92,000 in Pennsylvania and more than 50,000 in Ohio.

The governors of Indiana, Iowa, Illinois and Arkansas all announced emergency or disaster declarations in their states to help free up immediate assistance for impacted counties. And on Sunday, President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for Arkansas ahead of a trip by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell to survey the damage and determine needs on the ground.

The federal declaration frees up federal resources, per the White House, to aid those impacted in Cross County, Lonoke County and Pulaski County, which encompasses the city of Little Rock, where heavy damage but no fatalities had been reported as of Saturday afternoon.

The National Weather Service reported that an EF-3 tornado had roared through Pulaski and Lonoke counties in Arkansas with estimated peak winds of 165 mph.

Efforts are now focused on recovery and rebuilding, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said. Nearly 2,600 structures in Little Rock were impacted and around 50 people were sent to hospitals, according to the mayor.

“It’s unbelievable anytime that you see, literally, vehicles flying across the air, structures being flattened,” the mayor said. “Many people were not at their homes. If they were, it would have been a massacre,” Scott Jr. told CNN.

Mayor Hobbs of Wynne, Arkansas — home to about 8,000 residents — watched the twister that hit her city Friday as it approached from a distance.

“I don’t know how to put it into words. It was devastating. It’s much different seeing it firsthand than it is when you see it on TV hit other communities,” Hobbs said.

Some houses in Wynne — home to about 8,000 residents — were completely crushed into piles of wood while others had their roofs ripped off, exposing the interiors of homes littered with storm debris, drone footage provided to CNN shows.

“We have a lot of families that are completely devastated. Have no home at all, no belongings survived,” the mayor added.

The aftermath of the devastating tornadoes is “unbelievably tragic” for the state, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Sunday after touring damage in Wynne.

Sanders also said she would make efforts to expedite aid to those in need.

“The state will be there every step of the way, providing resources and making sure that they have everything that they need,” Sanders said.

Early warning of storms saved lives, sheriff says

Janice Pieterick and her husband, Donald Lepczyk, were in their RV in Hohenwald, Tennessee, when they got the alert of an incoming tornado and rushed to her daughter’s home across the yard, CNN affiliate WTVF reported. The tornado hit minutes later.

The family hurried into the bathroom where they huddled together as the storm roared outside.

“We made her and the kids get into the bathtub because that’s supposed to be the safest place. And we just all hunkered down because all the doors blew out. Double doors in the front, double doors in the back, all the glass in the windows. It all blew out at once,” Pieterick said.

Pieterick said the whole house shook. “You can literally feel it moving. Lifting up. That’s when we thought we were going, too,” she said.

In nearby McNairy County, Sheriff Buck said the death toll could have been much higher if residents had not heeded early warnings and sought out proper shelter.

“Had they not, looking at the devastation that we had, our death toll could have been in the hundreds,” Buck said. “The power of mother nature is something not to be underestimated.”

​ Orange County Register 

LSU women win NCAA title, denying Iowa and Caitlin Clark

• April 2, 2023

DALLAS (AP) — Kim Mulkey’s LSU Tigers used a record offensive performance to beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa 102-85 in the national championship game on Sunday to win the first basketball title in school history.

The victory made Mulkey the first women’s coach to win national championships at two different schools. She won three at Baylor before leaving for LSU two years ago.

“Coaches coach a lifetime and this is the fourth time I’ve been blessed,” Mulkey said. “Never in the history of LSU basketball, men or women, has (anybody) ever played for a championship.”

The feisty and flamboyantly dressed Mulkey, who wore a sparkly, golden, tiger-striped outfit, now has the third-most titles of all time behind Geno Auriemma’s 11 and Pat Summitt’s eight. Mulkey has never lost in a championship game.

“My tears are tears of joy,” she said. “I’m so happy for everybody back home in Louisiana.”

Clark, The Associated Press national player of the year, couldn’t lead the Hawkeyes to their first national title despite one of the greatest individual performances in NCAA Tournament history. The junior finished with 30 points. She scored 40 in the semifinals to knock out unbeaten South Carolina one game after she had the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA history in the Elite Eight.

The dazzling guard, who grew up in Iowa, set the NCAA record for points in a tournament, passing the 177 that Sheryl Swoopes scored in 1993 en route to leading Texas Tech to the title that year. Clark ended her tournament with 191.

The 102 points broke the previous high for a championship game, surpassing the 97 that Texas scored against Southern California in 1986.

Jasmine Carson scored 22 points, Alexis Morris added 21 and Angel Reese had 15 points and 10 rebounds for LSU (34-2).

“It’s no one-man show around here. When I go down, the next man is up,” said Reese, who was honored as the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. “Every single time, every time I go out or Alexis (Morris) goes out, everybody always comes to step up.”

Trailing by 21 points early in the third quarter, Iowa started hitting from the outside to go on a 15-2 run, hitting four 3-pointers and converting a 3-point play to get within 65-57.

The Hawkeyes (31-7) trailed 73-64 with 1:03 left in the third quarter when Clark was called for a technical foul. She swatted the ball away on the floor after a foul call against a teammate. That counted as a personal foul for her, her fourth of the game.

“I thought they called it very, very tight,” Clark said. “Hit with a technical foul for throwing the ball under the basket — sometimes that’s how things go.”

Clark played the entire fourth quarter with four fouls but couldn’t get the Hawkeyes much closer.

“They really played well, they were ready to go. They did a great job. I’m just so proud of my team,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “This is brutal, it’s really tough to walk out of that locker room today and not be able to coach Monika (Czinano) and McKenna (Warnock) again. I’m very thankful for the season we had and don’t want to take anything away from that.”

After Katari Poole hit a 3-pointer in front of the LSU bench, Mulkey started weeping. A few seconds later after another LSU basket, Reese taunted Clark by putting her hand in front of her face with a “you can’t see me” gesture and then pointed to her ring finger at the end.

As the final seconds ticked off, Mulkey and Reese hugged, setting off a wild celebration by the Tigers.

The game was tight for the first 15 minutes before Carson got hot from the outside. She made all six of her shots in the second quarter, including four 3-pointers. After one of them, she threw her hands in the air and Mulkey mimicked it on the sidelines.

For good measure, the graduate student guard banked in a shot just before the halftime buzzer to give the Tigers a 59-42 lead at the break. It was the most points ever in the first half of a championship game, breaking the record held by Tennessee since 1998.

“I’ve been working for this my whole life,” Carson said at halftime. “It feels great to finally display it on this stage.”

LSU shot 58% from the field in the opening 20 minutes, including going nine for 12 from behind the arc. The Tigers finished the game shooting 54% from the field, including making 11 of 17 3-pointers.

Related Articles

Clark had 16 points and five assists before picking up her third foul with 3:56 to go in the half, which didn’t go over well with the sellout crowd of more than 19,000 fans that included first lady Jill Biden and Billie Jean King, who sat together in a luxury box.

Before this game, Carson had gone scoreless in five of her seven postseason games in her career. She had 11 points in this NCAA Tournament before Sunday.

It was high-scoring first quarter despite there being a lot of stoppages because of foul calls, which made getting into an offensive flow more difficult. Clark had a huge first quarter, scoring 14 points, but Iowa trailed 27-22.

Carson banked in a 3-pointer before the buzzer.

​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani homer back to back in win over A’s

• April 2, 2023

OAKLAND — Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani weren’t about to be shown up by a rookie.

An inning after Logan O’Hoppe blasted the first homer of his career, Trout and Ohtani hit back-to-back towering shots to center field, lifting the Angels to a 6-0 victory over the Oakland A’s on Sunday.

The Angels took two of three in the season-opening series, outscoring the A’s 19-1 after absorbing a frustrating 2-1 loss on Opening Day.

The Angels have high hopes for their run-production this season because of the depth of their lineup.

O’Hoppe, who has hit eighth or ninth each of the first three games, has driven in the Angels first run each game. He came to the plate in the fourth inning after Hunter Renfroe reached on an infield hit and Luis Rengifo walked.

Facing left-hander Ken Waldichuk, O’Hoppe got a 1-and-1 fastball over the heart of the plate and he hammered it over the fence in left-center.

O’Hoppe, the Angels’ 23-year-old No. 1 prospect, has four hits in his first 10 at-bats, with six RBIs so far this season.

An inning later, Taylor Ward led off with the second of his three hits, and then Trout drilled a ball 434 feet, bouncing off the green wall beyond the center field fence.

Trout also had a single and a double, making the 15th time in his career he had been just a triple short of the cycle.

Related Articles

Just after Trout’s homer, Ohtani hit a ball even farther, connecting for a 447-foot blast for his first homer of the season.

The 6-0 lead was plenty for left-hander Tyler Anderson, whose Angels debut was exactly what the team must have expected when they signed him to a three-year, $39-million deal over the winter.

Anderson induced soft contact throughout his six scoreless innings, striking out four and walking two. Only one of the four hits that Anderson allowed had an exit velocity over 90 mph.

Anderson followed Ohtani and Patrick Sandoval to the mound this weekend, as Angels starters combined to allow one run in 17 innings.

More to come.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers’ Michael Grove ready for 2023 debut Monday

• April 2, 2023

LOS ANGELES ― When spring training was all said and done, Michael Grove didn’t expect to see his name on the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster. He was already in Oklahoma City, keeping his arm loose in near-freezing weather, preparing for the start of the Triple-A season.

Two days after the Dodgers told him to pack his bags, Grove was re-packing for Southern California. Pitcher Ryan Pepiot had an oblique strain and was a surprise addition to the injured list on the morning of Opening Day. Grove, not Pepiot, was suddenly in line to fill the rotation spot of injured right-hander Tony Gonsolin.

Grove will make his regular season debut Monday against the Colorado Rockies.

“I guess it was a little awkward,” he said of the last-minute change of plans. “That’s the nature of the business ― just have to be ready when my name’s called, whenever that may be. This time it was before the season started. I’m just trying to be ready mentally and physically.”

Spring training was a bit of an adventure for Grove. In his final outing, he retired one of the five Arizona Diamondbacks hitters he faced in the first inning, then was removed from the game. The relaxed Cactus League rules allowed Grove to return to the game when the second inning began. He pitched another four innings without allowing a run.

Prior to that game, he had allowed one walk and struck out 14 batters across 12⅓ innings. He’d also allowed three home runs among five earned runs in all.

Underneath those uneven statistics, there were encouraging signs. Grove has tinkered with his slider in an attempt to elicit more movement from the pitch. In the game against the Diamondbacks, the pitch averaged 2,448 rpm, according to Statcast; last season it averaged 2,274 rpm.

It was only one game, but the results were encouraging. The Diamondbacks swung and missed at Grove’s slider eight times and put the ball in play only once. There is reason to believe it could be an even better pitch Monday.

“In Arizona, it’s cold, dry air, and altitude,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Get to sea level and the ball does a little bit more as far as spin. Michael can really spin the baseball. I do think that slider and curveball will play up.”

Roberts said Grove figures to get two or three starts if Gonsolin returns from his sprained ankle later this month as expected. Pepiot’s injury could take even longer to heal. For his part, Grove said he isn’t thinking about what a strong debut Monday would do for his long-term future in the Dodgers’ rotation.

Related Articles

Only recently, Grove was told what he needed to do to get back to the major leagues. Now that he’s back, it’s a matter of doing the same things in order to stick around.

“For me it’s just consistency and making sure that my pitches are in a good spot,” Grove said. “I have a little different arsenal this year than last year. Sequencing-wise, making sure that I’m using pitches in the right spot.”

ALSO

Max Muncy was not available one day after he absorbed a baseball to the groin. Chris Taylor started at third base and Mookie Betts got the start at second base in place of Miguel Vargas, who had a scheduled day off. Roberts said he doesn’t believe Muncy’s injury will require an injured-list stint. … Tony Gonsolin’s threw 40 pitches over two “innings” in a bullpen session. Roberts said his next appearance on a mound will come Wednesday against live hitters at the Dodgers’ Camelback Ranch facility in Arizona. … James Outman stole the Dodgers’ first base of the season in the seventh inning.

UP NEXT

Dodgers (RHP Michael Grove) vs. Colorado Rockies (RHP Ryan Feltner), Monday, 7 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570-AM

​ Orange County Register 

1 killed, another injured in Santa Ana hit-and-run

• April 2, 2023

One person died and another remained in the hospital on Sunday, April 2, after being struck by a hit-and-run driver along a residential street in Santa Ana, authorities said.

Around 2 a.m., the two pedestrians were standing near a vehicle in the street along the 500 block of West St. Gertrude Place when they were struck by an SUV heading west, the Santa Ana Police Department said in a news release. The driver fled before authorities arrived to find the two victims lying in the roadway.

The victims were taken to a hospital where one was later pronounced dead, police said. Their identity was not released Sunday afternoon pending notification of family.

Information on the other victim’s condition was not immediately available.

A description of the SUV was not available Sunday afternoon and no arrests had been announced. It was not immediately known if drugs or alcohol factored into the collision.

Anyone with information on the hit-and-run crash should contact Santa Ana Police Inv. L. Bao at 714-245-8223 or the Santa Ana Police Department’s Traffic Division at 714-245-8200.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ Luis Rengifo credits Jose Altuve for new approach at plate

• April 2, 2023

OAKLAND — Luis Rengifo may have taken more from the World Baseball Classic than simply the experience of playing in a charged atmosphere.

Rengifo said he spent a lot of time with José Altuve while they were teammates with Venezuela. Previously, the Angels infielder only had a few short conversations with Altuve on the field when the Angels played the Houston Astros.

“Altuve is a leader,” Rengifo said. “He knows what he’s doing before every at-bat. He puts the ball in play every single time. That’s what I want.”

After struggling for much of his sporadic opportunities in the majors, Rengifo enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2022. The switch-hitter hit .264 with 17 homers and a .724 OPS in 511 plate appearances, including a .909 OPS against lefties.

Through his first two games this season, Rengifo has already drawn three walks. One of them opened the floodgates for an 11-run inning after the Angels had struck out four times in two scoreless innings against Oakland right-hander Shintaro Fujinami.

“Luis’ at-bat to lead off that inning was phenomenal, spitting on a couple of those splits that  guys had swung over the top of in the first two innings,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “The last-pitch slider that he took down and in was a great take, and we were off and running.”

Nevin said that Rengifo has a slightly more upright stance from the left side now, and that could help his pitch recognition.

Rengifo, however, said that one of the changes is the approach that he learned from Altuve.

“I feel more confident every single time when I go in the box,” he said. “I am ready every single time. The game has slowed down.”

RENDON SITS

Third baseman Anthony Rendon was out of the Angels’ lineup a day after banging his left knee against the rolled up tarp while chasing a ball in foul territory.

“The tarp won,” quipped Rendon, who added that he still could have played on Sunday and he expects to play on Monday.

Nevin said the Angels had planned all along for Rendon to have one of the days off on this season-opening six-game trip, and now he’s planning on Rendon playing all three games in Seattle.

“He went into the tarp pretty hard yesterday, and with everything that’s going on, I thought today was the best one (for a day off),” Nevin said.

Rendon is also awaiting discipline from Major League Baseball, which is investigating his altercation with a fan after Thursday’s game. Nevin said he has “not heard anything” about a decision on Rendon.

NOTES

Right-hander Griffin Canning (groin) is scheduled to throw a bullpen session on Monday. …

Related Articles

First baseman Jared Walsh (headaches, insomnia) has been making progress on the issues at a facility in Utah, Nevin said. Walsh began taking  swings with the Angels’ Triple-A team in Salt Lake City. Nevin said there is still “no timetable” for Walsh to return. …

Catcher Max Stassi (hip) is on the injured list, but the family emergency that initially took him away from the team is the primary issue, Nevin said. “Keep him in your thoughts,” Nevin said. “That’s all I can say.” …

Although the Angels were using a straw Golden State Warriors hat to celebrate homers this weekend in Oakland, that won’t be a season-long fixture. Staff assistant Tim Buss, who is unofficially in charge of such things, said the Angels are still searching for something to use throughout the season. …

Catcher Matt Thaiss is scheduled to get his first start of the season behind the plate on Tuesday, Nevin said.

UP NEXT

Angels (LHP Reid Detmers, 7-6, 3.77 ERA in 2022) at Mariners (RHP George Kirby, 8-5, 3.39 in 2022), Monday, 6:40 p.m., T-Mobile Park, Bally Sports West, 830 AM.

​ Orange County Register 

Speed puzzling competition series launches in Orange County

• April 2, 2023

Decisions have to be made fast: What’s the plan for sorting? By color? By texture? Pull out all the edges?

This is speed puzzling, and teams have to decide quickly what is their best bet for turning the 500 tiny pieces they just dumped out of a box into the picture on the cover — in minutes, not hours.

On Saturday, the relatively new Orange County Speed Puzzlers hosted its third competition. The winning time was 34 minutes 57 seconds, completed by Trisha Siedlecki of Roland Heights and Allyson Longo of Anaheim.

When the coronavirus arrived three years ago and people suddenly found themselves at home with a lot of time on their hands, many dusted off puzzle boxes that had been stashed away.

And when it got hard because of the shutdowns to buy more puzzles, they started trading with others to refresh their supply.

“There is a really great puzzle swap community in Orange County,” said William Shandling of Anaheim, who is a co-founder of Orange County Speed Puzzlers with Lisa Moskowitz.

Several from the local swap community attended the USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association’s speed puzzling nationals in San Diego in October, Shandling said, and were interested in a regular competition closer to home.

So Moskowitz and Shandling teamed up and the first was held in February.

For Saturday’s competition, they got sponsorship from Ravensburger, a German toy company that has numerous puzzle lines.

But the company didn’t just pull 30 boxes of the same puzzle off a warehouse shelf, Shandling said. It surprised the organizers by offering to design a new puzzle for the competition, he said.

“It’s a really important step in the process, picking the puzzle for the competition,” he said. Along with being something that can be finished within time, it has to be fun for the puzzlers.

“We don’t want any diabolical puzzles where people are going to be frustrated,” Shandling said.

The organizers decided on a graphic arts motif, with a little April Fool’s twist here and there, he said, in honor of the competition’s date. The image included all the trappings of a puzzle competition, including name tags, a tiny version of the puzzle and a first place certificate.

Saturday’s competition drew 30 teams of two to GameCraft Brewing in Laguna Hills. Each played at their own table with spectators watching from an outside perimeter.

Competitions start with a lot of frenetic energy. Teams quickly sort the pieces into piles based on how they most likely will come together — maybe all the pieces that look like they would fit a building in the background or a grassy area.

Then they get to piecing things together.

“Our top puzzle pros, they won’t say more than 10 sentences to each other the entire game,” Shandling said.

Sometimes if a teammate gets stuck on a part of the scene they are working on, the pair might swap chairs or push piles around, Shandling said. “Just to give ourselves a fresh perspective.”

The winning team Saturday received two newly released 1,000-piece puzzles from Ravensburger. Second place received 700 piece puzzles and third place 550 piece puzzles.

June 4 will be the group’s next competition at GameCraft. Find them at Instagram.com/orange_county_speed_puzzlers or search on Facebook.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

2 injured, 1 arrested after fight at pro-Trump rally in Huntington Beach

• April 2, 2023

At least two people were injured and one was arrested after skateboarders fought with crowds gathered at the Huntington Beach Pier in support of former president Donald Trump.

The clash was reported about 12:30 p.m. Saturday said Huntington Beach police spokeswoman Jessica Cuchilla.

She said one person with “minor injuries” was transported to the hospital, and a man was arrested in connection with the fight.

Trump supporter Nick Taurus, injured at the rally, posted on Instagram that after “taking a skateboard in the head for President Trump … I’m still alive, I’m still kicking, it didn’t knock me out.” At one point, he removed a bloody bandage from his forehead to show the wound.

About 50 people attended the rally, “and for the majority, it was peaceful,” Cuchilla said.

The demonstrators carried U.S. and “Make America Great Again” flags, chanted “God bless Trump!” and proclaimed Huntington Beach to be “MAGA Country.”

The rally came two days after a grand jury in New York voted to indict the ex-president, who is accused of paying off porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential bid to keep information about an alleged affair out of the campaign. His then-attorney, Michael Cohen, served prison time for the crime.

Trump and his attorneys have denied any wrongdoing in the case. He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in New York.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register