Category: Breaking News

President Donald Trump has declared a National Emergency due to the COVID-19. Gov. Tom Wolf has announced all schools in PA are to be closed for 2 weeks starting Monday.

President Trump has announced the following: National Emergency has been declared until further notice. This will open up to $50B in federal aid.

Every State to open command centers.

All Hospitals to enact EAP Plans.

LOCAL INFORMATION

Bucks County declares ‘disaster emergency,’ schools to close for two weeks due to coronavirus spread

Bucks County Commissioners ordered a “declaration of disaster emergency” Friday, closing all school districts in the county, as well as the Bucks County Intermediate Unit, through March 29.

The primary reason for the closure was that a number of staff at the Intermediate Unit and schools throughout the county live in Montgomery County and would have difficulty coming to work, according to a letter sent by Mark Hoffman, the Intermediate unit’s executive director.

“I am not willing to take a risk next week and in future weeks with limited student supervision as a result of teacher and other staff absences,” Hoffman wrote. “In fact, on a call with the superintendents and county officials, the superintendents and I unanimously supported a countywide closure for all Bucks County public schools.”

The intermediate unit’s closure also affects special education and other services, and cancels all meetings and events. Employees and contractors at the intermediate unit will be paid during the closure, according to Hoffman.

Daybreak revealed a landscape littered with blown-down walls and roofs, snapped power lines and huge broken trees, leaving city streets in gridlock. Schools, courts, transit lines, an airport and the state capitol were closed, and some damaged polling stations had to be moved only hours before Super Tuesday voting began.

“Last night was a reminder about how fragile life is,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper said at a Tuesday morning news conference.

Residents of the historic Germantown neighborhood walked around in dismay as emergency crews closed off roads. Roofs had been torn off apartment buildings, large trees uprooted and debris littered many sidewalks. Walls were toppled, exposing living rooms and kitchens in damaged homes. Mangled power lines and broken trees came to rest on cars, streets and piles of rubble.

Gov. Bill Lee said the death toll grew to nine on Tuesday, with more people among the missing.

One tornado touched down near downtown and reportedly stayed on the ground for about 10 miles (16 kilometers), into Nashville’s eastern suburbs, following a path parallel to Interstate 40 and causing more damage in Mt. Juliet, Lebanon, Hermitage and other communities.

AP contributors include Travis Loller and Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Rebecca Reynolds Yonker in Louisville, Kentucky, and Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama.