Month: June 2026

By Rachael Lardani, Baylee Martin

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    COLUMBIA, Pennsylvania (WGAL) — A Lancaster County organization is hosting a fundraiser to assist the families affected by a fire that destroyed three homes and a business.

The blaze started around 3:20 p.m. on Saturday, June 13, on South Fourth Street near Avenue I, according to emergency dispatchers.

Police said all residents were able to evacuate their homes safely.

The American Red Cross said they were assisting 17 residents, including four children, who were affected by the blaze.

One resident, Andy Ernst, said he watched the fire grow rapidly.

“Nothing but a big black plume of smoke in the sky, started off real little, then next thing you know, boom bam, it was on fire. Big fire,” Ernst said. “It was like something out of a horror movie.”

Ernst said he has not been allowed to return to his home and was unable to recover any belongings, including his wife’s urn.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the State Police Fire Marshal.

Donations being accepted The Columbia Dream Center, operated by Columbia Presbyterian Church, is accepting donations to help those affected by the fire starting at 9 a.m. on Monday, June 15.

The organization is collecting clothing and monetary donations and has created a special fund for those impacted.

Donations can be dropped off at 360 Locust St. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Alyssa Munoz

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    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KOAT) — The city of Albuquerque is offering free swim passes to children who pledge to stay out of arroyos and ditches as monsoon season begins Monday.

Arroyos help guide water runoff throughout the city, but they can fill quickly during heavy rains, reaching depths of 12 to 15 feet with rushing water. These conditions can turn deadly if someone gets stuck in one.

The “Ditch the Ditches” program asks kids to take a pledge, promising to avoid ditches and arroyos and to call 911 if they see someone in danger. Each child who takes the pledge will receive a free swim pass.

Nicole Friedt, director of planning and engineering for the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority, highlighted the risks posed by arroyos. Sometimes, even on sunny days, unexpected events such as water main breaks can make the channels dangerous.

“Just 6 inches of water can knock a person down,” Friedt said. “Water can travel from the foothills to the river in about 20 minutes. It’s really important for people to always kind of just be aware that there is a potential danger, and that’s what these facilities are designed for, is to convey that water so that their homes and their properties don’t flood.”

Officials advise residents to contact local authorities, such as the fire department or 311, if they see anyone in an arroyo and rain appears imminent.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Arianne Brown, KSL

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    CEDAR CITY, Utah (KSL) — Owning a farm wasn’t on Symbria Patterson’s radar when she moved her family from Los Angeles to Cedar City in 2005 — but her 10-year-old daughter, Sara Patterson, had very different plans.

“Sara is kind of unique, and we knew she needed to live on an open space,” Symbria Patterson said.

Sara Patterson, now 31, said the move to Cedar City to a 1-acre parcel of land might as well have been 100 acres.

“We could walk for what felt like miles without seeing a single house,” she said.

While big-city life was all Sara knew, her mom always managed to keep a garden at their home. They also had a family friend who operated a community-supported farm in Nevada, which young Sara loved to visit. And as she played in her yard in Cedar City, she dreamed of one day having her own farm.

“I really loved the community piece to their farm, and I thought what a beautiful way to be able to grow food for people with community-supported agriculture,” Sara said.

Community-supported agriculture is a business model in which locals pay upfront before the harvest, share some of the risk and enjoy the benefits of a local bounty.

Young Sara decided to take it upon herself to grow some veggies and sell them to locals. This, her mom said, was a fun hobby to watch, but it wasn’t something they were going to invest much time or money into. But when she announced she’d sold some shares, her parents knew it was more than just a hobby.

Soon, Sara had made enough money to bring home goats and chickens, and she named her business Red Acre Farm CSA. By the age of 15, a handful of shares turned into 40. She soon generated enough revenue to buy the acre next door. Her dad quit his job to work for her full-time, and it became a family business.

‘Could we get shut down, too?’ As her business grew, Sara kept in touch with her family friend in Nevada, who mentored her.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

“They had a farm-to-fork dinner, and they didn’t send the right documentation for transporting food to the health department in time,” Sara recalled. “They got shut down, and the food was destroyed with bleach. I was the one who ran and got the bleach, and I watched this beautiful food that had been grown and prepared by these farmers and these chefs get destroyed.

“It was a crazy experience that really changed my life,” she added. “I asked my mom what the laws were in Utah and if we could get shut down, too.”

As it turned out, they, too, were breaking laws.

“You don’t really think when you’re 14 years old, that selling vegetables or milk from your two goats is illegal,” Sara said. “It’s not that my parents were oblivious or not caring; we were naive to what we were doing.”

Changing laws amid tragedy Naivety was on her side, as was drive. Being young and eager to create a small community farm sent Sara and her mom to Capitol Hill in 2015. There, they championed a bill allowing farmers to legally fractionalize ownership of dairy animals, so consumers could legally access and drink raw milk for herd-sharing.

The bill was signed into law as HB104 in March 2015. That same day, tragedy happened.

“My husband had been holding down the place while we were on Capitol Hill, and there was some pretty heavy rain and snowstorms,” Symbria Patterson said. “It was the end of March, and we were using some in-town greenhouses, and he didn’t come back home.”

Lynn Patterson collapsed and died suddenly at the age of 58 from unknown causes.

“Within an hour of my dad passing away was when the governor signed our bill,” Sara Patterson said. “My whole life was kind of rocked. Losing my dad and my mom losing her husband —my dad ran the farm, so losing my father and my business partner kind of changed everything. At the time, we were just figuring out how to survive.”

The community they had built through farming rallied around them, and they began to rebuild. A year or so later, another tragedy struck.

“I woke up to a house engulfed in flames,” Symbria Patterson said. “We had to live off-site for a year and keep coming back. This farm was not designed to live off-site, but the community helped so much. I want to put a sign out in the front that says, ‘Vegetables didn’t build this house; it was insurance.’ The fire was the silver lining in the clouds.”

Mother and daughter Rebuilding after loss took more than building a new house or even growing a community; it took a mother and daughter working together to build a future for the greater good of small farms. To date, the two have helped pass over 20 bills that help small farm owners expand farm-to-table operations in Utah, while also advocating for farmers across the country.

“Some people think you’re going back in time with some of the things we’re doing, but the thing is, we’re losing our ag, and we’re losing our farmers,” Sara Patterson said. “We’re losing our water and our land, and we have to be innovative to be able to stay in the game. I want other people my age to be able to farm and be able to be first-generation farmers and to be able to stay in these multi-generational farms.”

Mother and daughter Rebuilding after loss took more than building a new house or even growing a community; it took a mother and daughter working together to build a future for the greater good of small farms. To date, the two have helped pass over 20 bills that help small farm owners expand farm-to-table operations in Utah, while also advocating for farmers across the country.

“Some people think you’re going back in time with some of the things we’re doing, but the thing is, we’re losing our ag, and we’re losing our farmers,” Sara Patterson said. “We’re losing our water and our land, and we have to be innovative to be able to stay in the game. I want other people my age to be able to farm and be able to be first-generation farmers and to be able to stay in these multi-generational farms.”

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by KSL’s editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Natacha Casal

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    IMMOKALEE, Florida (WBBH) — Erica Ramirez, owner of Los Eloteros in Immokalee, stopped to assist a man with serious injuries who collapsed near her business on Saturday evening.

“I just, you know, felt the need that I needed to stop and help someone, and and I did,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez’s Saturday began like any other, preparing elotes and serving customers. Around 5:30 p.m., she went to the store for supplies and noticed two women, who had just left her business, helping a man lying on the ground.

“He had a gash on top of his head. He had a gash on his eye. He had a–a gash right in his arm. I mean, he–he had some he had some really ugly wounds on him and he was losing some blood,” Ramirez said.

The incident occurred at a bus stop in front of Lali’s Bakery, where Ramirez said the man collapsed.

“He was conscious. He was able to tell me what happened to him. He was able to say that a car hit him,” Ramirez said.

Gulf Coast News reached out to nearby businesses for security footage of the incident but was unable to locate any video evidence.

“It’s sad, you know, because he was badly hurt. And I mean, I’m just glad that, I mean, we could at least help to get him some help,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez said she does not know exactly what led to the incident but hopes the man is recovering.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office has been contacted to determine what happened.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Joyce Ogirri

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    LANESVILLE, Indiana (WLKY) — Nearly a week after devastating flash flooding swept through Lanesville, many residents are still dealing with the aftermath. For Ruth Price, the cleanup is far from over.

Price says floodwaters rushed toward her home last Tuesday after nearly eight inches of rain fell in just a few hours, overwhelming parts of the community.

“It come down that driveway just like a river. And this street out here. It was like a river. Water running down every place,” Price said.

She watched as water poured into her basement.

“It is scary to stand there and watch that water come in your yard and go into my basement,” Price said. “I went down there to shut the doors, and the water was so swift, it just pushed them open.”

Price says the floodwaters rose to the steps leading to her home but stopped short of entering the main living area.

“It get up on my second step, on my steps. That comes up to the house. But that was as far as it got,” she said.

As the water receded, the full extent of the damage became clear.

Price has lived in her home for more than 60 years and says she has never experienced flooding like this before. Mud, dirt and debris coated her basement walls, leaving behind a difficult cleanup.

“It had a lot of dirt, mud, mulch. It got up on the walls,” she said.

Now, fans run constantly as she works to dry out the basement and salvage what she can.

Because her home is not located in a designated floodplain, Price did not have flood insurance. She says the flooding destroyed her refrigerator, freezer, washer, dryer and other belongings.

“It was kind of, I don’t know, heartbreaking, I guess you could say, to see all that stuff that we have had over the years get destroyed with all of this flood water,” Price said.

As she continues to recover, Price hopes government assistance may help offset some of the costs. In the meantime, she remains focused on moving forward.

“We’ll all survive. And with God’s help, we’ll get through it all,” she said.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Mary Regli

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    OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — Dozens of artists at the Omaha Art Fair had their work swept away by severe storms that rolled through the area on Saturday morning.

Vendors at the show were setting up for the show when the storms made their way into Omaha. Some like Denenna Hughes tell KETV NewsWatch 7 that she lost her entire business today.

“Every single piece of art is just completely destroyed. This isn’t salvageable. This is 100% loss here,” Hughes said.

Many said they didn’t expect the weather to bring as much damage as it did.

“We easily got 70 mph gusts down here where artists, we’re kind of used to this thing,” said Adam Weiss, President of the Omaha Art Fair. “But we can only batten down the hatches so far if we’re not expecting a huge storm like that.”

Artists like Shane Anderson did what he could to salvage his artwork.

“This is your livelihood. This is my baby, right?” Anderson said. “I’m sitting here thinking about, you know, I got to save my baby.”

Anderson lost thousands of dollars worth of work, but he considers himself one of the fortunate ones.

“A lot of artists will travel every weekend. You lose all of your work now, you can’t make money next week and the weekend after,” Anderson said. “So it’s not just this show you’re losing out on, but it’s every show after.”

Amidst the heartbreak, many vendors helped each other pick up the pieces from the damage left behind. Some even welcomed shoppers just hours after the storms devastated the art fair.

“A couple of people went to Walmart, and we got the new 10×10 tent, and they’re already set up, ready.” said Weiss.

For artists like Hughes, they’re starting once again with a blank canvas.

“I guess the good thing is I got to get in the studio and get painting more. Leave me alone. I need to paint,” Hughes said.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Felicity Taylor

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    PITTSBURGH (WTAE) — Yuto Sato, a Gannon University student from Japan, biked 1,200 miles from Pittsburgh’s South Side to Arlington, Texas, over the course of a month to watch his favorite soccer team compete in the World Cup.

“I have summer vacation now. I have the time, so I will try something big,” Sato said.

Sato, who just completed his first year at Gannon in Erie, is a passionate soccer fan. When he learned his favorite team was heading to Texas for the World Cup, he decided to turn the trip into an adventure.

On May 13, Sato bought a new bike at Unison Bike Lab in Pittsburgh’s South Side, loaded it with bags and a Japanese flag, and began his journey.

“I make like 50 or, 50 miles a day each day,” Sato said. “Tired sometimes, but yeah, it was fun.”

Traveling through the heartland of the United States, Sato visited several states for the first time. Each night, he used Facebook to connect with local community groups, through which he found new friends and places to stay.

“I joined the, local community group, and … then somebody and many people at least was, you know, they offered me you can call my home and. Yeah, just the, the the. Yeah. People. So nice,” Sato said.

Sato arrived at the stadium in Arlington just in time for Japan’s first match on Sunday.

“We play with Netherlands. Yeah. They are so strong. Yeah. So not. Yeah. Japan are strong, though, so I think good game. Yeah. It’s going to be good game. So I’m so excited,” Sato said.

After one month, 1,200 miles, and six flat tires, Sato is now resting and looking forward to the big game. Reflecting on his journey, he expressed pride in his accomplishment and gratitude for the connections he made along the way. He plans to head to Florida at the end of the summer with one of the friends he made during his trip, adding another state to his bucket list.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.