Head-on wreck kills 6 people in Georgia
MIDWAY, Ga. -- Six people, including three children, were killed early Sunday in a head-on collision on a Georgia interstate, authorities said.
The crash happened on Interstate 95, Liberty County sheriff's officials said.
Authorities received reports of a white Lexus traveling south in a northbound lane of I-95, Liberty County sheriff's deputy Lt. Jason Colvin said. Deputies were headed there when the crash was reported in the Midway area, he said.
The deputies arrived to find the wreck between the Lexus and an SUV, with no survivors, WSAV-TV reported.
The driver of the Lexus, which had Florida license plates, was killed, Georgia State Patrol Trooper Markus White said.
Two adults and three children in the SUV also died. The children ranged in age from about three to 10, authorities said. Their vehicle had Virginia plates.
Oklahoma backs utility on wind project
OKLAHOMA CITY -- An electric utility now has approval from the state for a share of a wind farm project proposed for seven counties in north-central Oklahoma.
Public Service Co. of Oklahoma's 675-megawatt share of the four-state project was approved last week by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
Public Service Co. of Oklahoma will own 45.5% of the 1,485-megawatt capacity of the North Central Energy Facilities. Corporate sibling Southwestern Electric Power Co. will own the rest. It has reached a settlement agreement with regulators in Arkansas, and hearings are set on its proposal in Louisiana and Texas.
The approval in Oklahoma only includes updates to existing infrastructure, not the new transmission lines needed to link the farms with the grid, said Corporation Commission member Dana Murphy, who said she is already receiving calls from landowners concerned about the need for the lines.
The project includes three wind farms that span parts of Alfalfa, Blaine, Custer, Kingfisher, Garfield, Major and Woods counties. It comes after the Public Service Co. of Oklahoma canceled the $4.5 billion, 2,000-megawatt Wind Catcher Energy Connection project in July 2018.
That project, proposed for the Oklahoma panhandle, was approved in Louisiana and Arkansas and by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, but it was canceled after its rejection by the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
2 deaths reported in Hawaii plane crash
HONOLULU -- A single-engine plane crashed at an airport northwest of Honolulu on Saturday, killing two people, authorities said.
Paramedics declared one man dead at Dillingham Airfield, and another man was sent to a hospital where he later died from his injuries. Emergency workers' preliminary report showed that one of the men was 78, and police later reported that the other man was 70, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
"I'm deeply saddened to hear the news of two people losing their lives in today's crash. My heart goes out to the family and friends of the victims. Thank you to all the first responders on scene today," Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said on Twitter.
It is unclear what caused the Cessna 305 plane to crash. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.
"The NTSB is the lead agency, and it typically takes the NTSB a year or more to determine a probable cause of an accident," FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said.
Last year, a skydiving plane crashed at the airfield, killing all 11 people aboard.
The state is transferring Dillingham Airfield back to the Army effective July 1, according to an announcement earlier this month.
But Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, called for the airfield to be shut down, Hawaii News Now reported.
"It has become clear that Dillingham Airfield cannot continue to operate safely. Our obligation is to keep people safe, and the only way to do that is to keep the airfield closed. I urge the FAA and [Hawaii Department of Transportation] to shut down the airfield until they can guarantee safety of operations at Dillingham," he said in a statement.
Wounded manatees rescued in Florida
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A female manatee named Marlin and her calf were rescued after wildlife specialists found them injured in Florida waters.
The Sun Sentinel reported that the two were being treated for wounds and infections at the Miami Seaquarium.
The mother was found Saturday with wounds from a boat strike. The female calf has a wound on her underside. On Tuesday, rescuers initially spotted the mother swimming sideways, which indicates lung damage. On Wednesday, the manatees swam away and disappeared under a low bridge in Fort Lauderdale.
After Saturday's rescue by experts from SeaWorld in Orlando and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, both manatees were started on antibiotics. Marlin will be scheduled for a procedure in which veterinarians will drain liquid or air from her chest.
The newspaper said boats and other watercraft were the biggest cause of manatee deaths statewide last year.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 02/24/2020