Mom charged with leaving her 6-month-old baby in hot car for 5 hours

The infant’s death and that of a child in Arkansas Tuesday who was found unresponsive in a closed vehicle brings the total number of hot car deaths among youngsters to 18 this year. By Marianne Mizera, AccuWeather front page editor Published Aug. 17, 2022 3:38 AM IST | Updated Aug. 17, 2022 5:28 AM IST

A Louisiana mother has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of her 6-month-old infant who police said was left in a hot SUV for five hours on Sunday. In separate incident that occurred Tuesday, police in Fort Smith, Arkansas, are investigating the death of a young child who was found inside a closed car for an unknown amount of time. A good Samaritan saw the child inside the stifling hot vehicle and smashed in a window to pull the youngster out. The person then rushed the child to the hospital, but he died soon after. Temperatures topped 102 degrees Fahrenheit there on Tuesday, according to AccuWeather data. In the Louisiana case, authorities charged Ivy L. Lee, 22, of Lake Charles, with leaving her baby in a vehicle from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., outside a building where she worked in the city. Temperatures in Lake Charles climbed into the 80s on Sunday, reaching a high of 89 F, according to AccuWeather data. The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office said Lee flagged down a sheriff's deputy about 2 miles from work around 3:45 p.m. and told him the baby was not breathing. The deputy and other officers who arrived on the scene began CPR on the child, who was then transported to a local hospital where she later died. The Sheriff’s Office said that the mother had initially given the deputies two different stories about what happened to her daughter, before finally telling them she had left the baby in the car while she worked.

Ivy L. Lee, 22, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of her infant daughter, who she left in her SUV for five hours on Aug. 14, 2022. (Photo/Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office) Lee is being held in Calcasieu Correctional Center on a $1.2 million bond, the Sheriff’s Office said. Data collected by the nonprofit Kids and Car Safety organization shows that more than 1,000 children have died in hot cars since 1990, with most age 3 and younger. At least another 7,300, the group notes, survived but with varying severities of injuries. These latest fatalities bring the total number of child hot car deaths to 18 for the year – all involving children 5 and younger, according to Kids and Car Safety, which tracks figures nationwide. The state of Louisiana ranks No. 5 in the nation with a total of 44 child hot car deaths since 1995, the group said. Experts note that cars become an oven within minutes of being closed. Data has shown that 80% of the temperature increase inside a car occurs in the first 10 minutes, according to Amber Rollins, director of the national non-profit organization KidsandCars.org. “It's important for families to understand that it doesn't have to be 90 degrees outside for a child to suffer from heatstroke inside of a vehicle," Rollins previously told AccuWeather. "We've seen children who have died in hot cars on days where the outside temperature was in the 50s or 60s outside, believe it or not, and that's because a vehicle does act like a greenhouse, so it allows that heat to come in through the windows, traps it inside and it's an oven; it heats up very quickly." Some of the other child hot car deaths reported this year include: • A 3-year-old girl was found unresponsive in a car in Carthage, Missouri, on Friday. The child was taken to a hospital in Joplin before being flown to a critical care hospital in Springfield. She was pronounced dead the next day, police told local media. AccuWeather data showed temps topped 94 degrees for the day. It was unclear how long the girl had been in the hot vehicle and whether the child was inadvertently left in the vehicle or if the child got in on her own. • An infant died on Aug. 9 after being left in a hot car in Washington, D.C. • A toddler died in May after he was left for six hours in a hot vehicle parked outside a daycare center in Memphis, Tennessee. • A 5-year-old boy in June was accidentally left in a car for several hours in the Houston area as the family prepared to celebrate the birthday of his 8-year-old sister. • An 11-month-old boy was left in a hot car in Florida in July.

At least 16 dead following catastrophic flooding in western China

18 people remain missing following late-night flooding and heavy rain that triggered landslides and turned a mountainous region in China into a deadly flash flood. Heavy rainfall produced catastrophic flooding in the western Chinese province of Qinghai, killing 16 people while at least 18 others remain missing, Chinese state media reported on Thursday. The sudden onset of severe downpours late Wednesday evening over a mountainous region in Qinghai triggered landslides, and the raging water diverted rivers that resulted in flash flooding in a populated area late Wednesday night. According to the state broadcaster CCTV, more than 6,000 people in six villages were immediately affected. The flash flooding was described as a "mountain torrent," according to emergency officials, The Associated Press reported. Occurring after a heavy downpour in higher elevations, mountain In a video shared online of the aftermath, partially washed away roads that were covered in debris, uprooted trees and overturned cars could be seen, the AP reported. According to Reuters, a rescue team of 2,000 people and 160 disaster relief vehicles have been sent to the area by the local government. Rescuers, who earlier reported 36 people missing, had found 18 of them by early Thursday afternoon, CCTV said in an online update. Through the rest of the week, temperatures will be in the 70s to low 80s, and more showers and thunderstorms are expected in Datong County, which was the epicenter of the flooding in Qinghai Province.torrents result when water running down turns gullies or streams into raging rivers, often catching people by surprise.

Flood damage in Qinghai province in northwestern China on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. (Reuters) In a video shared online of the aftermath, partially washed away roads that were covered in debris, uprooted trees and overturned cars could be seen, the AP reported. According to Reuters, a rescue team of 2,000 people and 160 disaster relief vehicles have been sent to the area by the local government. Rescuers, who earlier reported 36 people missing, had found 18 of them by early Thursday afternoon, CCTV said in an online update. Through the rest of the week, temperatures will be in the 70s to low 80s, and more showers and thunderstorms are expected in Datong County, which was the epicenter of the flooding in Qinghai Province. This has been the summer of extremes for China, which has been grappling with historic floods, heat waves and droughts across the country. In late June, as rivers overflowed, a historic flood brought devastation to the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi across central and southern China, which displaced tens of thousands of people.

Residents walk with umbrellas near a puddle during a rainy day in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Currently, the worst heat wave in six decades is roasting a large swath of central China, sending temperatures 15 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. This comes just a month after Shanghai, the most populated city in China, endured a dangerous heat wave, which sent temperatures past the century mark. According to the China Meteorological Administration, more than a third of the weather stations across the country have recorded extreme heat this summer, Al Jazeera reported. At least 262 stations reached or surpassed previous records. The Ministry of Finance said on Thursday that they have allocated 420 million yuan ($61.83 million) of emergency funds for local governments to provide food and drought relief as the country continues to grapple with extreme weather, according to Al Jazeera.

How to make a Travel Blog? Create Travel Blog in 30 Minutes

Do you also like to travel, visit new places, learn about new culture and food..all this? If yes, then you too can earn lakhs of rupees a month by converting this passion into your profession. Yes, we are talking about travel blogging. In this post we will tell you how to create a Travel Blog? And how to earn money from this travel blogging? We will tell you everything step by step, for this, definitely read this article completely. In this article today we will mainly learn about these three points: What is Travel Blogging? How to create a Travel Blog? How to make money from travel blog? What is Travel Blogging? Simply put, through your blog, tell people everything that people want to know about new places to visit, new culture, different food culture and traveling. It is called Travel Blogging. If you are giving all this information through video, then you will be called Travel Vlogger, whereas if you are giving all this information by writing a blog on your website, you will be called Travel Blogger.

How to make a travel blog?

If you also want to create your own travel blog, then you will need just these three things: A mobile or laptop, so that you can publish by writing Travel Blogs. A good website, where you can write and post your blog. The third and most important thing is the passion of traveling in you, the passion to write on traveling and the hunger to motivate people for traveling. If you have all these three things then you can become a good travel blogger. Let us now know the whole process of creating Travel Blog one by one. Step-1. Choose Your Domain Name : If you are going to create a travel blog, then the first and most important step is to choose the right domain for your website. We can also call the domain URL or web link of a website. Your blog name and its domain name should be the same. While selecting the domain of a good travel website, keep in mind the following things in particular:- Easy To Remember – The domain name of your website should be such that it can be easily remembered. The simpler and shorter it is, the better. Never use any numbers or special characters in it. Travel Niche to Relevant – Domain Name Niche/Topic of your website i.e. Traveling blogs. Step-2. Buy Domain & Hosting : After selecting the domain, the second step of Travel Blog Kaise Banaye is- Buying Domain and Hosting. Always take hosting from a company whose service and customer support is good. Take the cheapest plan in the beginning, later you can upgrade it according to the traffic. Although there are many hosting services available today, but if you are looking for a good and affordable hosting, then there can be no better option than Bluehost. Bluehost is quite Affordable (₹169/Month), its service is good and Customer Support is also good in case of any problem. Along with this, on taking hosting service from Bluehost, it also gives domain for one year absolutely free. Next we will tell you the complete process of buying Hosting & Domain on Bluehost. Step-3. Setup Your Website : First of all, go to Bluehost's website Bluehost.In in your browser.

Mysterious holes found on ocean floor have scientists ‘stumped’

These linear, peculiar-looking openings in the sand could be human made. But a more plausible explanation might be that they’re tracks left behind by an undiscovered species lurking in the deep sea. The depths of the Earth's oceans contain many secrets that often take researchers years of investigation to solve. A new mystery in the Atlantic Ocean is almost literally taking them down the rabbit hole. On July 23, along the seafloor off the coast of Portugal beneath the island chain of the Azores, scientists working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found a dozen sets of small holes in the sand at a depth of nearly 2 miles, with no clues of how they got there. Two weeks later and 300 miles away, they found even more mysterious holes, exactly the same as the first.

A close look at the sets of holes along the floors of the Atlantic Ocean. The origins of the holes are unclear. (NOAA Ocean Exploration) From May to September 2022, NOAA is carrying out an expedition called Voyage to the Ridge 2022 in this relatively unexplored region of the Atlantic. NOAA scientists set off from Newport, Rhode Island, to Newfoundland, Canada, on the first leg of the trip and then left Norfolk, Virginia, for the Azores. They will finish up by traversing the Atlantic in the other direction, to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Their research vessel, called the Okeanos Explorer, is investigating the coral and sponge colonies on volcanic ridges. Finding the holes was more of a happy accident. This isn't the first time scientists encountered these strange-looking patterns. NOAA spokesperson Emily Crum told The New York Times that in 2004, right in the vicinity of this initial discovery, researchers recorded the first sighting of the holes. “The origin of the holes has scientists stumped,” NOAA's Ocean Exploration project tweeted. “The holes look human made, but the little piles of sediment around them suggest they were excavated by … something.” “There is something important going on there and we don’t know what it is,” NOAA deep-sea biologist Michael Vecchione told the Times. “This highlights the fact that there are still mysteries out there.” Hypotheses regarding the origins of the holes range from human-made causes to the tracks of an undiscovered species of animal or a gas vent blowing bubbles up through the sand. Vecchione co-authored a paper in 2022 discussing the gaps in current knowledge of the holes and what could be causing them. According to the paper, the holes appear to have been either excavated from the top or pierced up from underneath, meaning whatever created them could have been digging the holes or burrowed under the sediment and potentially used the holes as a breathing apparatus -- like a snorkel. There's no definitive evidence to say for sure, though, and it will take more time and investigations to find the truth.

NOAA scientists use this underwater drone, called Deep Discoverer, to examine features of the seafloor up to 19,000 feet below the ocean's surface. (NOAA Ocean Exploration) Vecchione, who was present for this latest run-in with the mysterious holes, said he was happy to see them again after nearly two decades but also expressed disappointment that there are still no answers. The Okeanos Explorer is currently docked in the Azores until Aug. 6, when the vessel will set out for its third Voyage to the Ridge expedition.

Webb space telescope glimpses most distant star known to exist

Named after a "Lord of the Rings" character, the star is 12.9 billion light-years away from Earth and was first discovered using the Hubble's gravitational lensing ability.

The Earendel star, as glimpsed by the James Webb Space Telescope, is the most distant star ever seen, 12.9 billion light-years from Earth. (Photo courtesy of NASA, ESA/Cosmic Spring JWST) Aug. 3 (UPI) -- The most distant star known to exist in the universe has been spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope. It comes just months after scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope announced the star's existence. Earendel, named after a Lord of The Rings character, was discovered using the Hubble's gravitational lensing ability. The star is 12.9 billion light-years away from Earth, the most distant object ever recorded, according to NASA. Gravitational lensing extends the range of telescopes by detecting objects through bent light from objects that are behind black holes. When the bent light passes by the black holes the light behaves as though it were passing through the telescope lens. An image of the star, seen through the James Webb telescope, was released Tuesday by a group of astronomers at Cosmic Spring JWST. The Webb is the most powerful telescope ever launched into space and uses infrared technology to view objects farther away from Earth than previously possible. "JWST was designed to study the first stars. Until recently, we assumed that meant populations of stars within the first galaxies," astronomers from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland wrote in a paper in May. "But in the past three years, three individual strongly lensed stars have been discovered." The astronomers said this "offers new hope of directly observing individual stars at cosmological distances." The JWST was designed to see the very first galaxies formed in the first hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang. Earendel, known as WHL0137-LS, is in the constellation Cetus. It is not visible to the naked eye.

Water gushes down in waterfall in front of shocked park visitors

Torrents of mountain water gushed down a waterfall in front of shocked park visitors following heavy rain in the Davao de Oro province in the Philippines on July 22.

Flamingos return to nest in the Galapagos Islands for first time in 20 years

Around 8,000 families in Louisiana are still in temporary housing situations after the devastation caused by Hurricane Ida in 2021.

Ship that sank during ‘incredible storm’ in 1842 discovered in Lake Michigan

Ship that sank during ‘incredible storm’ in 1842 discovered in Lake Michigan The story of what unfo

lded on the doomed ship that fateful November night is chilling and dramatic, but until now no one had ever seen the vessel at the center of the shocking maritime tragedy. By Zachary Rosenthal, AccuWeather staff writer Published Jul. 21, 2022 8:10 PM IST | Updated Jul. 22, 2022 7:13 PM IST The Milwaukie, which would have looked like the ship above, was the first true "ship,” meaning it has a minimum of three masts, all square-rigged, to sail in the Great Lakes. Michigan couple uncovers shipwreck from 1842 Kevin and Amy Ailes used research, Google Earth and an underwater metal detector to locate the Milwaukie underneath the Great Lakes. A shipwreck lost nearly two centuries ago off the eastern shores of Lake Michigan has been rediscovered by a pair of adventurous scuba divers. The ill-fated ship, the Milwaukie, went down in the freezing cold waters of the lake near the small city of Saugatuck, Michigan, during a blustery winter night on Nov. 16, 1842, that kicked off the wickedly snowy and chilly winter of 1842, according to The Chicago Tribune. Kevin Ailes and his wife, Amy, who have thus far discovered four shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, became interested in trying to find the Milwaukie and used Google Earth and stories about the ship to make the amazing discovery.

Pakistan’s largest city received more than an entire summer’s worth of rain in one day

Pakistan’s largest city received more than an entire summer’s worth of rain in one day By Mary Gilbert, AccuWeather meteorologist Published Jul. 25, 2022 9:52 PM IST | Updated Jul. 25, 2022 9:52 PM IST Copied Volunteers use a boat to rescue people from a flooded area after heavy rains, in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, July 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan) Monsoon downpours deluged portions of Pakistan this weekend and Karachi, the country's largest city, bore the brunt of the worst impacts as the floodwaters destroyed homes, inundated businesses and damaged infrastructure. AccuWeather forecasters say the heaviest rainfall from the event arrived Sunday when Karachi received more than triple its monthly rainfall in just 24 hours. Daily life was turned to a standstill as this deluge turned major throughways into raging rivers and left entire neighborhoods submerged. Images from the city showed residents navigating floodwaters that ranged from knee-high to chest-high in spots. Vehicles were left stranded as floodwaters climbed. The catastrophic flooding event left all major highways in Karachi flooded, according to The Express Tribune. Due to the impossibility of safe travel for large portions of the city, the local government declared Monday a public holiday in Karachi, which closed all government offices and urged private offices to follow suit. Karachi, Pakistan's financial and industrial hub, is located along the coast of the Arabian Sea. Some of the most densely populated areas of the city are located at, or scarcely, above sea level. The low-lying nature of the city already makes Karachi prone to flooding issues, but inadequately-constructed drainage and flood management systems compound the issue considerably. Rainwater even mixed with sewage in some locations and this contaminated water rushed into homes and businesses. Murtaza Wahab, the Karachi administrator, told The New York Times that the city has an old drainage and sewage infrastructure that could not cope with the torrential rains and acknowledged that updates were critical.

People wade through a flooded road after heavy rains, in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, July 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan) Floodwaters in recent days have damaged more than 5,500 homes as well as critical infrastructure like highways and bridges, according to a report from Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority. This weekend's flooding was the second destructive flooding event the city has had to endure this month alone. Earlier in July, another deluge of monsoon rainfall left Karachi underwater. Since the middle of June, monsoon rainfall and subsequent flooding have resulted in more than 280 deaths throughout Pakistan, according to The Associated Press (AP). GET THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP Have the app? Unlock AccuWeather Alerts™ with Premium+ The amount of rainfall the city has already received this month is astounding, forecasters say. "Karachi received 2.36 inches (60 mm) of rain on Sunday due to a weak monsoon low that formed near southwestern Rajasthan, India, over the weekend," AccuWeather Lead International Forecaster Jason Nicholls explained. So far this July, the city has recorded just over 8 inches (200 mm) of rainfall which equates to 1,147 percent of normal for the month, according to Nicholls. Karachi typically receives less than an inch (25 mm) of rain in July and just over 1.50 inches (38 mm) of rain over the course of the summer months. Furthermore, even in the highly unlikely event that not a single drop of rain falls in Karachi for the rest of the year, the city would still end 2022 with over 260 percent of its normal precipitation. The monsoon normally arrives in Pakistan around July 8, but this year it arrived several days early, according to Nicholls. "Part of the reason for the excessively wet July is that the monsoon [axis] has been located south of its normal position for much of the month," Nicholls explained. Instead of directing the heaviest rain over northern India and around the sub-Himalayan foothills, the monsoon has instead sent abundant moisture directly to central India and southern Pakistan. "July is the wettest month on average, but there can be bouts of rain into Pakistan until the monsoon withdraws, typically in mid- to late September," Nicholls cautioned. Given the current situation across the region, any additional bouts of rain will bring with it increased chances for a repeat of catastrophic flooding. In the short term, forecasters say there is at least some glimmer of hope in the forecast for hard-hit portions of Pakistan struggling to clean up and rebuild. The monsoon axis will lift back north starting around midweek, which should lead to an easing of rain in the region later this week and into the start of August, according to Nicholls. Nicholls also expressed concern that August could be another wetter-than-normal month for Karachi and Pakistan as a whole.

Massive sandstorm blotted out the sun in one Chinese province By Mary Gilbert, AccuWeather meteorologist

Massive sandstorm blotted out the sun in one Chinese province By Mary Gilbert, AccuWeather meteorologist Published Jul. 23, 2022 12:33 AM IST | Updated Jul. 23, 2022 7:26 PM IST Hazardous weather caused widespread disruptions to daily life across portions of China over the last week. A massive dust storm engulfed part of one Chinese province during the middle of the week just days after sweltering heat baked a large swath of the country. The powerful sandstorm roared to life on Wednesday over portions of the province of Qinghai, located in northwest China. The worst of the storm blew through northern areas in the province and forced travel to come to a halt as residents and tourists alike sheltered in place.

Eyewitnesses reported the sandstorm lasted for nearly four hours on Wednesday, according to CNN. During the peak strength of the massive storm, visibility dropped below 650 feet (200 meters) in spots and completely blotted out the sun, according to the South China Morning Post. Wind speeds of 33 mph (53 km/h) were recorded within the storm as sand and dust pelted the region. AccuWeather forecasters say it is likely stronger wind gusts occurred within the storm, but meteorological instrumentation is sparse within the region of occurrence. Portions of the Qinghai are typically dry. In fact, the northwestern section of the Qinghai province is considered a desert. Forecasters say it's likely that sand from these dry or desert areas was lofted into the air as thunderstorms developed in the western portion of China at midweek. No casualties were reported as a result of this sandstorm, according to state media. Elsewhere in China, a significant swath of the population has endured unseasonable, even record-breaking heat this summer. Since mid-June, large sections of northern, eastern and central China have baked amid a long-term heat wave, according to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). From June 13 to July 12, high temperature readings in at least 71 national meteorological stations broke historical extremes, according to a CMA press release. At least three cities in the Hebei province, including Lingshou, Gaocheng and Zhengding, and one city in the Yunnan province, Yanjin, have eclipsed 111 F (44 C) this summer. The heat was so brutal in the Yunnan province city of Zhaotong last week that railway workers had to get creative to prevent damage to railroad tracks. Workers could be seen sliding giant blocks of ice down each rail of a section of tracks on Wednesday, July 12, in an attempt to bring down the temperature of the metal. When exposed to extreme heat, railroad tracks can warp and buckle.

Man loses leg to flesh-eating bacteria after taking dip in Florida waters

The infection, from microorganisms usually rampant in warmer waters, can also lead to death by quickly ravaging the body, and the chances of getting sick are growing as temperatures spike in otherwise cooler waters. By Marianne Mizera, AccuWeather front page editor Published Jul. 22, 2022 11:35 PM IST | Updated Jul. 22, 2022 11:35 PM IST Lifeguards watch as beach-goers enjoy the surf at Smith Point County Park, a Long Island beach, on Friday, July 15, 2022. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) An Alabama man who planned to spend a leisurely day swimming with his family while vacationing on the Gulf Coast in Florida ended up having part of his leg amputated after contracting an insidious flesh-eating bacteria through a small cut that had been healing. William Pledger, 75, was enjoying the warm weather with his relatives in Little Sabine Bay in Pensacola while attending the Blue Angels airshow on July 9. "At some point, the whole family was in the water," his son, John Pledger, told WEAR-TV in Pensacola. Five days later, his father's leg began to get sore, and by day 6, he was in severe pain, “could not sit still, his leg had started swelling up," and he was rushed to the hospital, John Pledger said. The medical team quickly diagnosed him with the flesh-eating bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, one of many types of micro-organisms that cause necrotizing fasciitis, a severe and fast-spreading bloodstream infection in which the flesh around an open wound dies, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “The infection courses through the entire body, kind of like a hurricane or tornado that ravages everything,” Dr. Katherine Doktor, of Cooper University Hospital in New Jersey and co-author of a 2019 study on the illness, told Business Insider. William Pledger’s relatives said that all of his soft tissue from the knee down had been destroyed and doctors informed him they had to amputate his leg below the knee. Such flesh-eating bacteria enter the body typically through an open wound or break in the skin, like a cut or scrape or recent piercing or tattoo, according to the CDC. "He had a small cut on his left leg, it was scabbed over, didn't look too bad," John Pledger told WEAR-TV. "It was very small." Vibrio vulnificus is the same destructive bacteria that can make you sick by eating raw or undercooked shellfish, particularly oysters, or handling infected animals when you have an open wound, according to the CDC. Symptoms include diarrhea, cramping, nausea, vomiting and high fever, although some cases can be quite severe. Microorganisms that cause necrotizing fasciitis occur naturally in the warm coastal waters of Florida, the state’s Department of Health said. Public health officials in Escambia County, which comprises Pensacola, even issued a warning over the Fourth of July weekend urging beachgoers to stay out of the water if they have any cuts. “During the summer, especially in the coastal areas—especially in the Gulf Coast, where we have the heating of the water—we start seeing an overproduction of a bacteria called Vibrio,” said Dr. Laila Woc-Colburn, an infectious disease expert at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. But researchers now believe that increasingly warmer ocean temperatures have made for more prolific breeding grounds for such flesh-eating bacteria -- and not just in the usual spots. The bacteria seem to prefer brackish water (a mix of fresh and salt water) with surface temperatures above 55.4 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius), scientists said. Doktor’s 2019 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at five infection cases in people who were exposed to water in the cooler Delaware Bay or consumed shellfish in that area. “These five cases are significant because in the eight years prior to 2017, we only saw one case of Vibrio vulnificus at our institution," she noted to Insider. Still, cases of flesh-eating bacteria infections are rare, doctors say, but those that are diagnosed each year can be fatal. The Vibrio vulnificus bacteria alone causes 80,000 illnesses each year in the United States, with about 100 eventually dying from the infection, CDC said. Even with his leg amputated, William Pledger’s relatives said he has a long road to recovery ahead. His family anticipates it could be months before he’s released from the hospital. In the meantime, they hope others will take precautions in the water, heed official warnings and learn from their devastating ordeal. “It was very emotional watching my dad go through all this," John said.