This is WBZ, Boston's news radio, redefining local.
News, mostly sunny, fifty two degrees at eleven o'clock on this Thursday morning. I'm Sherry Small. Let's get you caught up. Here's what's happening. Hurricane Milton has moved on from Florida, and now the cleanup begins. At least four people are dead and millions are left without power. Cruiser using trucks and boats to get through floodwaters and rescue stranded Floridians.
This is a special report from ABC News Hurricane Milton. I'm Sherry Preston. The storm barreled into the Atlantic after plowing across Florida, whipping up a barrage of tornadoes that led to four deaths and more than three million power outages. With more on that. ABC's even pilgrims in Orlando.
We saw transformers blowing less and right, and there's a lot of power out in the state of Florida. Some three point two million houses holds are waking up without power.
Here.
Tampa Electric saying seventy percent of their customers don't have power right now.
Florida Governor Roun Dessentis says one of the big focuses now is also on gas.
Ensuring that fuel is flowing. Hopefully we get our gas stations in big box stores and everything opened very quickly. I'd imagine that that will likely happen and just get people back on their feet.
Milton madeland Fall about eight thirty eastern last night and see us t Key south of Tampa. The storm surge predicted to be as high as fifteen feet in Tampa at one point, didn't get nearly that high. This is ABC.
News and we will continue to follow this and bring you the very latest throughout the day. Take us with you on the go with the iHeartRadio app. A cyber attack targets Mass State employees. The state says a fake website was created to look just like the state's portal where employees entered their work hours and attendance basically time cards. Well, some employees were fooled and use the fake site, entering
their user names and passwords. This allowed scammers to harvest that information to potentially access the employee's legitimate accounts, gaining access to their direct deposit information. The state says that the fake website has been taken down. Those impacted have been notified and says there is no evidence that the
state's legitimate work and attendance website was ever compromised. Inflation still appears to be on the downswing, new data showing the consumer price index rose only slightly last month.
The consumer price index is up just two tenths of a percent, the same increase for August and July, which is good news for consumers hoping to see inflation continue to slow. Over the last year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the cost of all items rose about two point four percent, far less than previous year price increases. The biggest September price jumps were four tenths of a percent for food. Energy prices fell nearly two percent.
And that's ABC's and d Field reporting. Their other federal data released today, Those shows you jobless claims rose to their highest level in a year last week. Mostly sunny skies today a little cooler, though we'll reach a high of just fifty nine degrees, clear and chili Tonight, cooling off to about forty six in the city, upper thirties
in the cool western suburbs. Friday warmer, a high of sixty six degrees Tomorrow, Mostly sunny, skies, and Saturday we warm up to seventy one degrees, mostly sunny, a little bit of a breeze as well, but there's a turnaround come Sunday. We could see a shower or two in the forecast, highs only reaching about sixty degrees and unfortunately more clouds in sunshine. Right now, we're up to fifty two degrees right now in the city. It's eleven oh five.
Salvation Army volunteers from the Northeast are on scene in Florida trying to help the Sunshine State recover after Hurricane Milton's vicious landfall. Last night. WBZ TV's Julie McDonald reports.
We're still dealing with survivors from ian let Alone, Heleene let Alone, Milton, So it's an ongoing process.
During times of disaster, one hundred percent of designated donations to the Salvation Army are used for immediate response and long term efforts. These teams are out straight before they even return to Florida.
Every Salvation Army truck that goes out has about one thousand meals for lunch, they have one thousand meals for dinner, and we're coming back with empty trucks.
More volunteers will leave New England this weekend answering the call to deliver help and hope.
MIMA has deployed personnel to Virginia and the Carolinas to help with last week's Hurricane Helene, and has offered to send help to Florida in the wake of Milton. Autumn leafs are as good as gold for businesses around New England.
And paid is exactly the status of New England when it comes to leaf peeping season and tourists coming to our region from all over the country. The Nation Park Service saying New England generates eight billion dollars during the autumn months from foliage tourism, people spending on everything from retail, hotels, restaurants and more. And that money is coming from four million people who descend upon New England specifically to visit for fall foliage. It'll be peak leaf peeping season on
October twenty seventh and Greater Boston. We're in the midst of this annual autumn spectacular. Jim MCKAWBZ Boston's.
News Radio Saturday, it would be a great day for leaf peeping once again. His reaching a seventy one decrease Wildlife experts say global animal populations have shrunk dramatically in the past fifty years. CBS's Vickie Barker has more.
Among the species affected elephants and tropical fars and hawks, bill turtles off Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the Barrier Reef itself. The Worldwide Fund for Nature says habitat destruction is pushing the Amazon Rainforest to the brink of collapse, and the loss of that carbon sucking machine would accelerate global warming. Vicki Barker, CBS News, London.
Policymakers in New England and Canada are trying to navigate tricky transitions to clean energy. Now, some advocates are pushing the two sides to partner up. New England has plenty of wind energy and Canada specializes in hydropower well. Some experts say that you sides should pull all their resources together. Not only would it be cost effective, but it would also safeguard against energy shortages. Governor Healey and other leaders from both sides of the border have signaled interests in
such a partnership. You are now in the loop for news updates throughout the day. Listen to WBZ News Radio on the iHeart Radio app. I'm Sherry Small, WBZ, Boston's news radio